Microfibres Revenue and Competitors

Microfibres was founded in 1926 by Norman E. McCulloch, Sr., as the Rayon Processing Company of Rhode Island. The company spent most of the first twenty years of its life, up to and including World War II, cutting, dyeing, and marketing precision and random cut rayon flock under the Raycote name. his raw material was the key ingredient customers used to create coated fabrics found in a wide variety of consumer products and display material. The company's reinforcement fillers appeared in everything from paper goods to army helmets and rifle butts. Business was good, and in 1947, management added a new division called Indev to specialize in the production of flocking equipment the company would sell to its customers. The basic idea was that you could sell more flock if you provided equipment that made it easy to use. Under the leadership of Norman "Sandy" McCulloch, Jr., Microfibres was the first to develop precision cut nylon in-line finished flock ­ opening up a whole new market for soft, yet durable consumer products. The first major new application was the flocked blanket developed jointly with West Point Pepperell and Microfibres, which is still sold under the Vellux brand today. By the late 1970's, production at the Rhode Island manufacturing facilities had begun to resemble present day operations. The company specialized in cutting and dyeing nylon flock and built modern coating and printing lines, using Indev equipment, to supply outside converters. By the end of the decade, revenues in the commission coating business were almost as big as the cut fiber business. Top management, however, was uneasy about the future. In 1980, under the direction of Jim McCulloch, Microfibres ' current president and CEO, the company began to market a proprietary line of upholstery fabrics under the Microfibres® brand name and sell these products directly to customers. It was a decision which proved to be the crucial turning point in company history.