Precision Textiles officially opened its 170,000-square-foot facility in Troy, N.C., to serve bedding producers in the Southeast.

TROY, N.C. — In conversations with bedding customers based in the Southeast, Precision Textiles CEO and co-owner Scott Tesser kept hearing a similar refrain: Mattress manufacturers wanted and needed the company’s nonwoven FR materials and other textiles the company makes to be produced in a facility closer to them.

The distance from Precision’s 250,000-square-foot factory and headquarters in Totowa, N.J., presented transportation and logistics challenges that caused business partners to bristle. The edict was loud, and the company embarked on a search for the right location and leased a 170,000-square-foot textile factory on 25 acres in North Carolina that met its needs.

The company opened the new factory in Troy, N.C., late last month to produce needle-punch nonwovens and high-loft quilting fiber for the mattress industry. In addition to the factory, the company will soon be the owners of a 100,000-square-foot warehouse about 10 miles away. That deal is set to close by the end of this year.

Aneta Konior, left, Keith Martin, Jeff Smith, Peter Longo, Scott Tesser, Gerry Welkley and Dawn Coleson, all of Precision Textiles celebrate the opening of the company’s new factory in North Carolina.

Once the new warehouse comes online and new machinery is added the production floor, Precision will have made a $5 million investment in its domestic production footprint in the North Carolina, a state that has seen much of its textile business transition overseas.

The facility is dedicated to producing materials needed for Precision’s bedding customers.

“We knew we needed to be in a part of the country where the bedding segment is strong, and this meets that need,” Tesser said. “We are making a commitment to our industry, our customer and to our employees, all of whom are very important to us. That’s a commitment that we will work very hard to achieve. We’ve opened facilities all around the world, but nothing makes me happier than to be here opening this one in North Carolina.”

Tesser is bullish on domestic manufacturing and hinted that additional factories in the U.S. are in the planning stages for next year. Precision at one point operated in the apparel business, too, creating liners for clothing. At that time, much of that business shifted off shore to Asia, and the company eventually shifted away from the segment.

“We believe in domestic production for textiles, and we’ve learned a lot of lessons through the years,” he said. “Most of the fiber still comes from off shore. We have to balance that with our production here.”

Precision’s product line includes nonwovens and laminate solutions for the bedding, automotive and healthcare industries. Prior to the opening of the new factory, the company’s products have been manufactured in New Jersey, where the company operates round the clock with three shifts and a 24/7 research, development and testing lab to ensure quality control. The lab works with the production team to test products as they come off the production line for quality control.

That footprint will be replicated in North Carolina allowing the New Jersey facility to focus on automotive and healthcare, while North Carolina is dedicated to producing goods for the sleep category.  The company is currently operating one shift with 40 employees some of whom had worked in the factory before, including the plant manager Jeff Smith who chose to stay with Precision.

Tesser said by mid-October it will have a second shift online, and a third shift will be operational next year with full employment of 110.

“This location really fell in our lap,” Tesser said. “The facility was available when the former company relocated, and we made a deal quickly to move in. The machinery was already in place, which allowed us to start production almost immediately. It really could not have worked out better.”

Previously, the factory had housed Auria Solutions, a company that produces automotive textiles similar to Precision’s business in the automotive industry. Auria moved out of the building in July, and Precision moved in. Prior to Auria’s time in the space, the building had housed a number of other textile companies including Collins & Aikman.

The similarities between the two companies’ products allowed Precision to flip the switch quickly.

Craig Jones, the mayor of Troy, N.C., said he was thrilled with the speed at which Precision was able to get production up and running following the relocation of Auria.

“We were concerned for our residents and what the exit of Auria would mean for the community,” Jones said. “Having a great company like Precision move in so quickly has been a calming force here.”

I’m Sheila Long O’Mara, executive editor at Furniture Today. Throughout my 25-year career in the home furnishings industry, I have been an editor with a number of industry publications and spent a brief stint with a public relations agency where I worked with some of the industry’s leading bedding brands. I rejoined Furniture Today in December 2020 with a focus on bedding and sleep products. It’s a homecoming for me, as I was a writer and editor with Furniture Today from 1994 until 2002. I’m happy to be back and look forward to telling the important stories impacting bedding retailers and manufacturers.

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