New Balance Chair James Davis said yesterday the company
will begin a $17.5M expansion of a Lawrence, MA, plant that could
offer the company same-day shipments and create 250 jobs,
according to today's BOSTON GLOBE. The company will add 150,000
square feet of warehouse space and a new computer system, cutting
processing time to filling orders from 48 hours to less than a
day. This will free up enough space on the manufacturing side to
boost yearly production capacity from 300,000 pairs to nearly 1
million pairs within three years. Davis said the plant's
expansion would not have happened if the FTC had not backed away
from its definition of what constitutes a "Made-In-America"
product. New Balance imports midsoles and outsoles, but makes
uppers and assembles shoes at domestic factories (David
Halbfinger, BOSTON GLOBE, 5/31).
CONVERSE PLANS: Converse CEO Glenn Rupp told company
shareholders Wednesday he wants to turn the company's Lumberton,
NC, shoe factory into a state of the art facility giving Converse
the ability to bring shoes to market much faster than the
competition. Rupp wants Converse to "play to its strength" as
one of the few shoe companies with a sizable domestic production
facility. The factory currently only makes vulcanized rubber and
canvas shoes, while "performance" shoes are made overseas, Rupp
said he was forming a task force to study what it would take to
make Lumberton a "world-class" facility. Having a domestic plant
gives Converse a four-week head start over companies that ship
their shoes from the Pacific Rim. Modernizing that plant could
cut lag time from order to delivery from six months to six weeks
(David Halbfinger, BOSTON GLOBE, 5/30).
