CIndustry recruitment trip turns up surprise

By By Fredie Carmichael / staff writer
Sept. 30, 2003
QUITMAN An industry recruitment trip to Spartanburg, S.C., in October 2002 provided a pleasant surprise for the Clarke County Board of Supervisors nearly a year later.
A business they visited, Gibbs International, bought equipment from the closed Burlington textile plant in Stonewall. Gibbs referred supervisors to a North Carolina group looking for a place to start a new spinning business.
That business, Magnolia Spinning, signed a contract with the Clarke County Board of Supervisors on Monday to lease the county-owned Sunbeam building on U.S. 45, north of Shubuta.
Supervisors said the announcement came at a good time.
Clarke County's economy has been in decline for more than a year ever since Burlington Industries closed its Stonewall textile and denim plant, putting more than 800 people out of work.
Clarke County supervisors have since used a $100,000 grant from the Mississippi Development Authority to travel around the country and look for prospective industries.
Supervisors say they hope Magnolia Spinning, which will spin yarn out of cotton from the Mississippi Delta, is the first of many businesses to locate in Clarke County.
Magnolia officials said the Clarke County workforce was one of the biggest drawing points for them.
Feibus said his company is committed to generating new jobs in the county.
The lease agreement signed Monday specifies that Magnolia will initially employ about 45 people by the first six months of operation and 80 by the second year.
Feibus said the plant is expected to begin operations around the first of the year.