Hillsville manufacturer to close, leaving 68 out of work

Parkdale, a manufacturer that bills itself as one of the world’s largest providers of spun yarns, plans to close its Hillsville facility, with 68 employees losing their jobs by Oct. 24, according to a notice sent to the state in compliance with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.

The Carroll County facility will close Oct. 9 “as a result of the declining economic environment created by rapidly rising energy costs,” which created “an unsustainable business model,” Karen Menting, vice president of human resources for Parkdale, wrote in a letter to Virginia Works, also known as the Virginia Department of Workforce Development and Advancement.

Parkdale did not respond to a request for comment. Carroll County Administrator Michael Watson confirmed the layoffs Wednesday.

On Oct. 9, 2023, Parkdale closed three of four Carroll County facilities, according to news reports. That time, 326 employees lost their jobs.

For July, Carroll County had a 4.2% unemployment rate, a historically low figure. “So, a lot of them, they’ll be able to find jobs within the area,” Watson said of the laid-off Parkdale workers.

In February, U.K. business development firm Oasthouse Ventures, which specializes in environmentally sustainable endeavors, announced plans to invest $104.8 million to build its first U.S.-based controlled environment agriculture operation in Carroll, a project expected to create 118 jobs initially. The venture, which now goes by the name Pluck’d, expects to begin harvesting tomatoes at a 65-acre sustainable greenhouse in January, according to the company website.

Watson said he has not been told what Parkdale plans to do with its facilities.

“It’s about a million dollars’ worth of tax revenue to the county that we no longer will collect,” he said. “It’s a pretty good hit to [the county] budget.”

Founded in 1916, Parkdale is headquartered in Gastonia, North Carolina. The company purchased U.S. Cotton in 2008 and has manufacturing facilities in the United States, Mexico and South America.