The president of patrick yarns is a bitrnof an odd duck these days. While most domestic manufacturers are consumed by cutbacks and layoffs, Gilbert Patrick is looking to add to his North Carolina workforce. "We have been very fortunate to never lay off a single associate due to the economy in 45 years," says Patrick. Just what economy is he working in?rnPatrick's roots in the North Carolina textile industry stretch back more than a hundred years. In the early 1900s, his grandfather started Kings Mountain Cotton Oil Co., which consisted of a cotton gin, an oil mill, a coal yard and an ice plant-a business for every season. Thosernindustries began to wane in the 1960s, so his father H.L. Patrick bought some used textile equipment and started Patrick Yarns, focusing exclurnsively on spinning industrial mop yarn.
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