Malden Mills Ethical Question
William M. Grissett
Business ethics
WK 4 Research paper
Malden Mills Ethical question
June 25, 2009
Aaron Feuerstein greeted the brisk New England morning of December 11th, 1995 with unusual optimism, especially for a man almost seventy years old. After all Malden
Mills was the last of the New England garment factories, and a century old family business besides! Known as the leading innovator, producer, and marketer of branded, high quality performance textiles for the outdoor products industry may require a much younger man he mused. Little did he know that before the day ended he would be faced with the biggest decision in Malden Mills’ history.
Samuel Slater, a former apprentice in a British mechanized textile factory introduced the Industrial Revolution into the United States in 1790, when he established a similar mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Mechanized textile factories quickly sprang up throughout New England. In 1814, at a cotton mill established by the American industrialist, Francis Cabot Lowell in Waltham, Massachusetts, all the steps of an industrial process were, for the first time, combined under one roof: cotton entered the factory as raw fiber and emerged as finished goods ready for sale.
It was in this center of the textile industry that Henry Feuerstein, an immigrant from
Hungary, incorporated Malden Knitting Mills in the city of Malden (five miles north of
Boston) in 1906. The company began as a knitted product manufacturer producing woolen bathing suits and sweaters. In 1923 the company integrated backward into the supply chain by establishing the Malden Spinning and Dyeing Company.
Looking for expansion space away from the cities, which had developed as a result of the mills, many large New England fabric operations began to construct new facilities closer to the source of their cotton raw materials in the south. Coupled with a lower cost workforce, this search for new manufacturing space began the migration of
Business ethics
WK 4 Research paper
Malden Mills Ethical question
June 25, 2009
Aaron Feuerstein greeted the brisk New England morning of December 11th, 1995 with unusual optimism, especially for a man almost seventy years old. After all Malden
Mills was the last of the New England garment factories, and a century old family business besides! Known as the leading innovator, producer, and marketer of branded, high quality performance textiles for the outdoor products industry may require a much younger man he mused. Little did he know that before the day ended he would be faced with the biggest decision in Malden Mills’ history.
Samuel Slater, a former apprentice in a British mechanized textile factory introduced the Industrial Revolution into the United States in 1790, when he established a similar mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Mechanized textile factories quickly sprang up throughout New England. In 1814, at a cotton mill established by the American industrialist, Francis Cabot Lowell in Waltham, Massachusetts, all the steps of an industrial process were, for the first time, combined under one roof: cotton entered the factory as raw fiber and emerged as finished goods ready for sale.
It was in this center of the textile industry that Henry Feuerstein, an immigrant from
Hungary, incorporated Malden Knitting Mills in the city of Malden (five miles north of
Boston) in 1906. The company began as a knitted product manufacturer producing woolen bathing suits and sweaters. In 1923 the company integrated backward into the supply chain by establishing the Malden Spinning and Dyeing Company.
Looking for expansion space away from the cities, which had developed as a result of the mills, many large New England fabric operations began to construct new facilities closer to the source of their cotton raw materials in the south. Coupled with a lower cost workforce, this search for new manufacturing space began the migration of
Cited: http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Malden-Mills-Industries-Inc-Company-History.html http://www.boston.com/business/gallery/maldenmillshistory/ http://www.polartec.com/about/history.php http://www.google.com/search?q=malden+mills+history&hl=en&rlz=1W1TSHB_en&sa=X&tbs=tl:1&tbo=1&ei=W8NGSsnfCMm0twf6x7TbBg&oi=timeline_result&ct=title&resnum=11 http://www.aish.com/societyWork/work/Aaron_Feuerstein_Bankrupt_and__Wealthy.asp