MJP –
Taylorsville, North Carolina –
After closing its doors and laying off hundreds of workers a year ago, the biggest private employer in Alexander County is now open for business again.
Hiddenite, Statesville, and Taylorsville were the locations of Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams’s three furniture manufacturing sites that were shut down last summer. According to reports made public by the North Carolina Department of Commerce, the majority of the 533 employees who were laid off are from the Taylorsville site.
As a group, we have all spent time here. “Everyone was shocked because we all know each other,” Becky Smith, a native of Taylorsville, said just before the closings.
Signs advertising job openings adorned the entrance to the Taylorsville Mitchell Gold facility for days and weeks following the announcement in September of last year. For those who had lost their employment, other businesses were actively recruiting.
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According to Connie Kincaid, the business development manager of the Alexander County Economic Development Corporation, “It was a transition for everyone.”
After a year, a lot of those former workers are coming back to get their jobs back.
Shortly after the layoffs, the Georgia-based maker Surya bought out Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams to revive the company.
Mitchell Gold is a highly exclusive product, so “we are thrilled that Surya has come in and bought Mitchell Gold and is now looking to put employees in there again and begin the manufacturing of furniture,” Kincaid said.
Mitchell Gold COO Darryl Webster that the return to the company’s 1980s-era culture is the main objective.
Webster reports that 75 individuals, mostly former employees, have sought positions at the plant.
All fifty open posts have been filled as of Monday, with 38 remaining. Their long-term goal, according to Webster, is to grow.
The mayor of Alexander County, Kincaid, expressed his delight at their presence.
