Milliken & Company history

In 1884, the company invested in a new facility in Pacolet, South Carolina, and from that investment the manufacturing operations grew.

In 1890 Deering-Milliken & Co. was incorporated.

1901 Eco-Friendly Since the Beginning In 1901, Milliken establishes its first recycling policy to formalize processes to reuse packaging and textile materials in its operations.

In 1904, William Deering moved to Chicago and founded Deering Harvesting Machinery Company, which later became International Harvester.

By 1908, Hillsboro was beginning to be overlooked by another Town creation, Milliken.

Railroads and agriculture continued to be the primary foundations of the Town in the 1920s.

1944 Milliken Begins Manufacturing In 1944, Milliken moves from investor in southern textile mills to manufacturer, becoming one of the first to realize the potential of new man-made fibers and innovate textile production methods.

1945 An Investment in Research By 1945, Milliken formally established its research group to drive textile product innovations.

In 1947, Gerrish Milliken was succeeded by his son, Roger, who moved to Spartanburg, SC and began the consolidation of the “Milliken Mills” – 35 separate companies with many outside shareholders.

The company agreed to pay a total of $5 million to the 427 workers still alive and the survivors of the 16 workers who had died since 1956.

By 1960, Roger had reorganized them into a single corporation and began building new plants in the Southeastern United States, Europe and Asia.

1962 Milliken Takes Flight In 1962, the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport opens and is the first non-military airport to have a runway centerline lightening system.

1963 Crossing the Atlantic In 1963, as the pace of global commerce picks up, Milliken established its first offices in Europe.

Deering-Milliken began its European operations in 1965, opening mills and offices in England, France, and Belgium.

In 1967 Deering-Milliken eliminated 600 mid-level management jobs in a consolidation to cut overhead.

In 1968, Milliken develops Stabilon® laid scrim and Millimatic™ weft insertion warp knitting technologies for composites such as duct tape, roofing membranes and construction panels.

The 1970’s saw the invention of the first polymer bound chemical, which became the genesis for the Milliken Chemical Division and its versatile polymer bound chemistry technology platform.

In 1976, Deering Milliken officially became Milliken & Company.

In 1978 the name Deering was finally removed from the company, more than a century after company founder Deering's departure.

During the 1980’s, Roger Milliken developed a laser-like focus on Quality as the company’s foundation.

1981 Award-Winning Quality In 1981 Milliken launches a quality initiative, which pays off as Milliken wins numerous awards, including the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award and the TPM Award.

Milliken's increased public involvement resulted in his being named Textile Leader of the Year in 1986, the first such honor awarded by Textile World, an industrial magazine.

In 1987, the company fought fire with fire, establishing a subsidiary in Japan.

The company opened a second chemical plant in 1988 in Blacksburg, South Carolina.

The Stroud family had sued Milliken and his board of directors at least three times by 1989 in attempts to win shareholders' information and input.

Nevertheless, in December 1990 the Daily News Record reported that the Stroud family had sold "a small amount of Milliken stock" to Erwin Maddrey and Bettis Rainsford, executives of Delta Woodside Industries Inc.

By 1991 58 percent of the fabric and apparel sold at retail in the United States was imported.

In 1998, Mercantile Stores, a Milliken holding from the Depression Era which had grown into a national retailer operating in 102 locations in 17 states, was sold to Dillards.

In 1999, the industry’s trade publication, Textile World, selected Roger Milliken as the textile industry’s Leader of the Century.

The government grew in 2004 with the opening of the Milliken Public Works Facility.

In 2007, Milliken introduces MPS, a consulting service that applies these practices to help other companies improve manufacturing performance and safety.

Roger Milliken died in 2010 at age 95, leaving behind 5 children (whom he forbade to join the company), 9 grandchildren, and many nieces and nephews.

2014 Westex Joins Milliken In 2014 Milliken acquires Westex, an investment in strengthening Milliken's commitment to providing superior flame resistant (FR) fabrics for protective clothing.

2015 Milliken Celebrates 150 Years In 2015, Milliken & Company celebrated a centry and a half of innovation in the textile industry.

2017 Two Textile Divisions Merge The Milliken Performance & Protective Textiles division builds on industry-leading expertise to instill strength, protection, comfort and beauty to a range of industrial and consumer textile applications.