PolyQuest Inc. and Straterra Holdings LLC have created a joint venture to operate the former DuraFiber Technologies facility in Grover, N.C.
News of the deal comes after a summer announcement that DuraFiber had filed paperwork with North Carolina state officials to close facilities in both Grover and Salisbury, N.C., moves that would cost 462 jobs.
The location makes industrial polyester filament threads.
PolyQuest, a PET recycler and a virgin PET resin distributer, joined with former DuraFiber Technologies executives at Straterra Holdings to gain ownership of the facility through a joint venture called Fiber Innovators International LLC.
"We are pleased that we have been able to consummate this deal with Straterra Holdings and plan for additional investments in Grover," PolyQuest CEO John Marinelli said in a statement. "Strategic customer relationships and retention of our excellent employees are two of the primary keys at Grover. We will be able to secure many manufacturing positions at the Grover facility in Cleveland county. Our workforce has the skills and talent to produce highly engineered filament that has been and will remain a standard in the industry."
Paperwork required by the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act indicated that 89 people worked at the Grover facility at the time of the closure announcement.
The company, at the time, also indicated it would close a third facility in Winnsboro, S.C.,
Tire Business, a sister publication to Plastics News, previously reported DuraFiber blamed the closures on higher labor, energy, transportation and raw material costs.
DuraFiber previously was known as Performance Fibers until 2014. The company also sold PE yarn factories in Querétaro, Mexico, and Longlaville, France, to Indorama Ventures Ltd., Tire Business reported.
PolyQuest calls itself the largest PET resins distributor in the United States and Canada "and one of the fastest growing recyclers in the U.S."
The new owners cited the Grover facility's "long history of manufacturing high quality polyester filament and is the only remaining facility in the U.S. making unique filament for certain technical applications."