Quaker Fabric Corp.

Company Profile

Larry Liebenow and partners acquired Quaker Fabric in 1989. The company grew to become one of the largest producers of Jacquard upholstery fabric in the world as well as producer of specialty yarns, both for its own fabrics and for sales to other fabric manufacturers. The company prospered in the 1990s. According to a March 22, 2006 account in The Herald News of Fall River:

With 2,400 employees, the local textile giant was Fall River’s largest private employer. As 1998 came to an end, the company announced its plan to build a 1.3 million-square-foot plant at the southern end of Jefferson Street. The project would require 60 acres of land and, upon completion, would employ an additional 1,800 workers. Quaker planned to invest $36 million in the project.

However fortunes changed and from November 2003 to June 2007, the company shed some 1,700 jobs in Massachusetts. In October 2006 Quaker Fabric Corp. announced it was opening an upholstery fabric mill in China with partner Hangzhou Zhongwang Fabric Products Co. The mill was announced as a state-of-the-art fabric finishing and post-finishing plant slated to begin production in November 2006. [Source The Herald News, Fall River, Mass., October 21, 2006.]

Quaker's sales for the fiscal year ended December 2006 were $151.7 million, with net loss of $37.6 million. On July 3, 2007, after 12 consecutive quarters of losses, Quaker said it was likely to shut down, throwing some 900 employees out of work. The company, which had been losing millions of dollars and slashing jobs over the past few years, said it expected to soon begin liquidating its assets. Quaker stock, which had hit its highest price of $19.50 On May 1, 1998, had fallen to $0.17 per share. The previous summer chief executive Larry A. Liebenow had cited "fierce competition from imported Chinese fabrics" as a key reason for the company's struggles and the layoff at that time of more than 200 workers. [Source: The Boston Globe, July 4, 2007.]

On August 20, 2007, Quaker Fabrics filed for bankruptcy -- see article in Furniture Today.

On September 21, 2007, news accounts were published that Victor Innovatex would take over the Quaker Fabrics plant -- see article in Furniture Today. The following day the Providence Journal published a detailed story about Victor's plans for the Fall River facility.

On October 3, 2007, news accounts were published that Victor Innovatex has named former Quaker executives Bea Spires and Duncan Whitehead to senior management posts Quaker Fabrics plant -- see article in Furniture Today.

On February 6, 2008, Casual Living reported that Westgate Fabrics was buying the Brazilian assets of defunct decorative fabric supplier Quaker Fabrics.

History of Plant Closings and Layoffs

Chronological list

History of NTA Affiliation

The Nortex Yarn Div. of Quaker joined NTA March 25, 1993, and was briefly active in NTA's Wool Manufacturers Council. By late 1993 Quaker Fabrics Corporation was enrolled as a member of NTA's Cotton and Synthetic Group. Quaker was represented on the NTA Board of Government from 1996 through 2004 by Duncan Whitehead. The company resigned NTA membership January 1, 2005.