About

History of DeSales Trading Company

In 1969, at the age of 57, with seven of his nine children left to raise, Wm. T. “Bud” Murray and his wife, Noel B. Murray began DeSales Trading Company.

DeSales Trading Company began in Atlanta, Georgia, just after Bud’s departure from his previous employer, Norman W. Paschall Company. With the help of his wife, Noel, and daughter, Neno, Bud began his new venture trading textile byproducts.

A few years after the start of DeSales Trading relationships started with Macfield Texturing and Universal Texturing, now Unifi. These relationships launched DeSales Trading into the textile yarn business—selling into circular knit and half-hose markets.

Joseph Murray, Bud’s son, joined DeSales Trading in 1974, just after completing his tour of duty with the United States Navy S.E.A.L. team unit. Joseph began to travel the “textile corridor”: North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Georgia with the goal of growing the business. Joseph’s travels eventually prompted Joseph to move his family from Atlanta to Greensboro, North Carolina—at the time, a true market center of the yarn supply.

Shortly after Joseph’s transition to Greensboro, in 1977, Bud passed away.

Joseph decided to keep DeSales Trading steaming along. However, he made the transition by closing the Atlanta office.

With the younger Murray at the helm, signs of a prosperous future were on the horizon but it was not all that easy. Joseph now had to rely on his personal relationships with the banks, factories, suppliers and customers to ensure the position of DeSales in the marketplace.

Mark Murray, Bud’s seventh child, joined DeSales Trading in 1980, just after his employment with Dixie Yarns. The knowledge Mark gained by working at Dixie brought an added element to DeSales Trading—the spun yarn market—cotton yarn, specifically.

Mark’s expertise with spun yarns and Joseph’s past experience brought DeSales Trading to a new level—serving new suppliers and new customers: circular knits, hosiery, narrow fabric and selected woven applications were now the target markets for the firm.

In 1985, Michael Murray, Bud’s ninth child, joined his brothers at DeSales Trading. Michael came to DeSales Trading after working with Colgate-Palmolive Company, the consumer products company. Michael’s purpose was to develop a customer base in the half-hose capital, Hickory, North Carolina. Michael moved to Hickory and established a good customer base that warranted DeSales Trading having a warehouse/distribution center.

Towards 1990, the brothers made the decision to close the Hickory operation and build a brand new facility in McLeansville, North Carolina just outside of Greensboro. This 40,000 sq. ft. facility soon turned into an 80,000 sq. ft. facility. At this time, the customer base of DeSales Trading had grown from primarily customers in the United States into a truly international customer base. Then the supply base started to increase from outside the United States, too. Customers and suppliers were making visits to DeSales Trading Company on a regular basis—from Trinity, North Carolina to Santiago, Chile to Hong Kong.

In 1997, a transition was made to Burlington, North Carolina where the business is presently located. DeSales Trading occupies a 105,000 sq. ft. office and warehouse facility. The present site is excellent for the local knitters and for the international customers and suppliers. DeSales Trading handles the movements of many ocean containers at the Burlington facility. In addition, DeSales Trading offers daily delivery service to the area knitters using the DeSales Trading Company delivery truck.