SIC 2396
AUTOMOTIVE TRIMMINGS, APPAREL FINDINGS, AND RELATED PRODUCTS

This category includes companies that manufacture automotive trimmings, apparel findings, and related products, and those that specialize in printing and stamping on garments and apparel accessories, including silk screen printing. Corporations classified in this industry make trimmings, bindings, and linings for items such as hats, suits, coats, neckties, purses, and luggage. They also make shoulder pads, shoulder straps, waistbands, ribbons, bows, sweatbands and visors for caps, and other components to be used by the textile industry.

NAICS Code(s)

336360 (Motor Vehicle Fabric Accessories and Seat Manufacturing)

315999 (Other Apparel Accessories and Other Apparel Manufacturing)

323113 (Commercial Screen Printing)

314999 (All Other Miscellaneous Textile Product Mills)

The value of shipments in the various product classes in 2001 were as follows: automotive trimmings, $4.3 billion; printing on garments and apparel accessories (including silk screen printing) and stamped art goods, $2.5 billion; other apparel accessories, not specified by kind, $538.1 million; and other trimmings and findings, $197.5 million. The value of shipments of all of the above products classes totaled roughly $7.5 billion in 2001.

According to the latest figures available from the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 600 establishments manufactured automotive and apparel trimmings in the early 2000s. They employed more than 12,000 workers, shipped more than seven billion dollars worth of goods, spent more than $500 million on materials, and invested roughly $50 million in capital expenditures. The largest concentrations of firms engaged in apparel findings and trimmings, except men's and junior boys' coat, suit, and

trouser findings in this segment were in New York, California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.

In 2002 QST Industries Inc. (Chicago, Illinois) sold $185 million worth of men's clothing component parts such as linings, shoulder pads, and waistbands. Among the leading companies in this classification that supplied the automotive industry were Prince Corp. (Holland, Michigan), which has operated as a subsidiary of Johnson Controls Inc. since 1996; Findlay Industries Inc. (Findlay, Ohio) with 2,500 employees and estimated sales of $800 million in 2002; TS Trim Industries Inc. (Canal Winchester, Ohio) with estimated sales of $130 million; and HFI Inc. (Columbus, Ohio) with estimated sales of $100 million. Detroit, Michigan-based Mexican Industries in Michigan Inc., which boasted sales of $171 million in the late 1990s, declared bankruptcy in 2002.

Companies in this industry operated plants outside the United States to better supply their customers. For example, Findlay Industries announced in 1997 that it would open a facility in Poland to supply nearby factories owned by General Motors Corp., one of its most important customers. In 2004, Findlay operated 24 manufacturing plants in North America and Europe. Likewise, QST Industries had been operating a manufacturing plant in Hong Kong since the 1980s to supply pockets, interlinings, and other components to overseas textile plants. The company opened a new plant in Mexico in 1999 and a third plant in the Dominican Republic within another year. International efforts in the early 2000s focused on emerging markets in Asia. QST also had warehouses and sales facilities in 32 countries as of 2004.

Further Reading

U.S. Census Bureau. "Statistics for Industry Groups and Industries: 2000." February 2002. Available from http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/m00as-1.pdf .

——. "Value of Shipment for Product Classes: 2001 and Earlier Years." December 2002. Available from http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/m01as-2.pdf .

U.S. Department of Agriculture. "NAFTA: A Clear Success for U.S. and Mexican Textile and Cotton Trade." January 2004. Available from http://www.fas.usda.gov/info/agexporter/2004/January/pgs%2022-23.pdf .