According to the Pennsylvania ABC affiliate, WNEP 16, Woolrich, Inc. is closing its 188-year-old Woolrich, PA woolen mill – its last in America – by year’s end.
“The company says it is shuttering the mill due to higher manufacturing costs,” the story says, leaving 40 employees out of a job in the town, and further underscoring the problems facing long-standing American manufacturers.
Going forward, all production will be handled overseas, WNEP reported, “a move Woolrich began in November of 2016” and one that will ostensibly increase profitability. But, as with the Cone Mills closure last December, another small town will be disproportionately affected in the process.
And while many locals were reportedly aware that one of “Clinton County’s longest running businesses” was closing, the announcement still stung. “I think it’s horrible,” one resident said. “Another American industry gone, you know? Just the way it is…”
Woolrich, for their part, is going to keep its wholesale and local retail operations going, and they’ve said they’ll be providing “career transitional services” for laid-off employees, which will include “helping them to find new jobs at area businesses.”
You can read more about it at WNEP 16.
