Robust Market for Yarns

The demands for yarns, fibers and other related products used in the textile business is robust. Threats of anti-dumping duties on textured polyester yarns imported from China and India are helping fuel demands for Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) & North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) compliant yarns. This year’s increased levy by the United States on imported yarns from China has added fuel the demands for domestic yarns and fabrics.

A small and unique establishment, DeSales Trading Company, based in a Southern town synonomus with textiles, Burlington, North Carolina has done quite well over their 50 years in business. The owners are really glad to see the uptick in demands for their products and for the industry as a whole. Joe Murray, Chief Executive Officer, of DeSales Trading Company, said “This bull market for the textile business is very welcome. The textile industry since 2005 has really been on a rollercoaster ride—many peaks and valleys.”

The satisfying element for DeSales Trading Company are the suppliers, customers, factors understand the role the company plays in the textile market. Their banker for 18 years, Dale Page, said, “It has been and continues to be a pleasure working with such a fine group of people as the Murray brothers. The company has adapted, evolved and thrived through various economic cycles, always with a focus on providing needed products and services to their customers and suppliers.”

“The big change at DeSales Trading Company is change itself,” said Mark Murray, one of three brothers who own and manage DeSales Trading Company. Mark continued, “If you are not willing to change you are just going to reach the same results year after year.” For DeSales Trading Company the brothers have ventured into new product categories they may have stayed away in years past. The company’s niche is the buying and selling of obsolete/2nd quality yarns from the largest chemical and yarn producers in the textile market.

In addition, the brothers buy obsolete/unwanted yarns from the largest of textile end-users and then re-sell the yarns to smaller firms who can take advantage of the products. The youngest, brother, Michael Murray, said, “We are kind-of like a used car dealer but we do it with yarns. Our business model is very similar to the A&E’s reality show, Pawn Stars. Folks bring to us their products and they want us to place a value on the offering in hopes we can reach an agreement to purchase. Then we must calculate the potential to be to sell the product very quickly. Or will we be sitting on the product for months?”

This year marks the 50th year for DeSales Trading Company. The company was started by the Murray brothers’ father, William T. ‘Bud’ Murray, in Atlanta, Georgia. The name of the company, DeSales Trading Company, comes from the Roman Catholic saint, St. Francis de Sales, the patron saint of patience. Bud Murray knew he would need plenty of patience to get his endeavor off the ground back in 1969 since he still had seven of his nine children still under his roof.

DeSales Trading’s efforts to remain nimble and quick to act has brought the company opportunities to step into new product segments like synthetic bi-component fibers used in the non-woven segment of the textile industry, elastomeric yarns (spandex & natural latex rubber thread) and some acrylic polymers. The purchases of products by the Murray brothers reaches far and wide from Northern Ireland, Brazil, China, Malaysia and Thailand, for example. Not all, but most products are brought into their facility in Burlington where they then distribute the products world-wide. Their products end-up in socks, pantyhose, fabrics for T-Shirts, and braided and twisted cords, for example.