Victor Woollen Mills

Company Profile

Victor Woolen Mills is a producer of woolen and worsted fabrics for fashion, billiard and gaming cloth, school uniforms, baseball caps, military uniforms, and headwear.

Quebec-based Victor Woolens, founded in 1947 by William Duval, originally specialized in the recycling of used wool garments into blankets. Later the company gradually began to sell fabric by the yard to outerwear manufacturers. Victor has been serving the North American contract furniture industry since 1980. Later on, the company expanded its product offering to include upholstery fabrics in 1994 with the new Victor Innovatex division. By the time Duval's grandsons took over in 1991, Victor Woolens was recognized throughout North America as a manufacturer of diversified specialty fabrics.

In 1999, Victor Woolens purchased the assets of The Forstmann Company, a U.S.-based textile manufacturer. Forstmann Woolens could trace its roots in the textile industry back to the Weavers' Guilds of 16th century Europe. Throughout the U.S., the Forstmann name has long been associated with quality and prestige. Victor Woolens' acquisition of Forstmann's in 1999 established a new company that embraced 75 years of combined industry experience, a large and loyal customer base, and a firm commitment to providing quality products and reliable service.

According to an Associated Press report of March 5, 2007:

A simple decision to switch from wool to polyester hats for Major League Baseball players was the final out for a 60-year-old textile plant -- once the county's largest employer.

Victor Forstmann Inc. officials announced the plant's closing Friday, blaming the loss of its biggest customer after a steady decline in business because of foreign competition over the last 15 years. The plant, which employed 1,500 people in its heyday in the 1990s, now employs just 124.

Those employees will work at the plant at least through April, with some continuing a few months after that while inventory is shipped.

The plant was built in 1947 by the J.P. Stevens textile company. It became Forstmann in 1986 and then Victor Forstmann in 1999 when the Quebec-based Victor Woolens bought the bankrupt company.

At the time of the merger, plants in Louisville and Milledgeville, Ga., closed, leaving the East Dublin plant. Two years ago, the company laid off 159 people in East Dublin, leaving about that many employees at the plant.

On September 21, 2007, news accounts were published that Victor Innovatex would take over the Quaker Fabrics plant -- see article in Furniture Today.

Victor Woollen Mills of St. Victor, Quebec, joined NTA June 22, 1993, and is active in NTA's Wool Manufacturers Council. In 1998 Victor acquired Cookshiretex, Inc. which had joined NTA in 1996. Forstmann and Company (acquired by Victor in 1999) had joined NTA in 1983.

Company website: www.victorforstmann.com/en/