Kl Plans To Reopen Idle Plant Garment Manufacturer Lands Contract With Seattle Firm

A new contract will allow an area garment manufacturer to reopen a Post Falls factory shut down last year.

KL Manufacturing closed the plant and auctioned off all the equipment when it could not overcome the pressures of foreign competition and the seasonal nature of the work, according to owner Mike Doohan.

But the company recently signed a three-year contract to produce 500,000 fleece pullovers and full-front zipper jackets a year for Seattle-based Cascade West.

“This will be year-round production, not seasonal, and we haven’t had that for a while,” Doohan said Thursday.

The company will produce 1,000 garments a day in Post Falls, and 500 a day at each of its Spokane and Chewelah plants in order to meet the contract, Doohan said.

“This could amount to a third of our total business,” he said, adding that the company does about $7 million worth of business a year.

The company will be hiring 90 people to restore the Post Falls plant to operation.

Start-up will depend on the company’s ability to find the equipment it needs to outfit the plant.

Doohan said his son, company president Joe Doohan, is in Portland, where a recently closed garment factory is auctioning off its equipment.

“If Joe picks up a cutting table there,” Doohan said, “we could be cutting a week from Monday.”

The Post Falls plant will not reach full production until September, Doohan said.

KL Manufacturing was founded more than 30 years ago. Doohan acquired the company in 1968, and employment peaked at 450.

The company currently employs about 300 in Spokane and Chewelah, where workers produce items for many major clothing lines, including Eddie Bauer, Jantzen, Lands’ End, L.L. Bean and Nike.

, DataTimes