Gulf Coast Spinning Co. LLC (GCS), a new venture undertaken by the management group of Lacassine,
La.-based Zagis USA LLC, will invest $130 million to build a cotton spinning facility in Bunkie,
La. The investment will result in the creation of an estimated 290 jobs.
The facility is the second of two mills that Zagis USA announced in 2008 it would build in
Louisiana
(See ”
Zagis
USA To Build Cotton Processing Facilities In Louisiana,”
TextileWorld.com, June 24, 2008). The company commissioned the first mill —
which represented a $20 million capital investment — in Lacassine in late 2009. The two mills now
represent a combined capital investment of approximately $150 million and together will generate
386 direct and 1,040 indirect jobs, according to Louisiana Economic Developoment (LED).
Following the completion of engineering and design work, GCS will begin construction in
mid-2014 of the 600,000-square-foot Bunkie facility comprising two mills — including a
ring-spinning mill equipped with 43,200 Zinser spindles that will be able to spin up to 450,000
pounds per week of value-added premium cotton and cotton/synthetic carded and combed yarns for knit
and woven apparel, and specialty denim yarns; and an open-end mill equipped with 17,280 rotors
supplied by five blending lines and 52 cards, with a weekly capacity of up to 2.5 million pounds of
cotton/synthetic and synthetic yarns.
GCS’s Bunkie facility will be four times larger than Zagis USA’s Lacassine mill, which
manufactures 100-percent cotton open-end yarns.
GCS plans to export most of its yarn, similarly to the Lacassine mill, which exports 85
percent of its spun yarn. Once the Bunkie mill is up and running, the two mills together will make
use of some 15 to 20 percent of Louisiana’s total cotton crop.
GCS plans to hire more than 200 employees by the end of 2015 and the remainder in 2016.
“Today’s announcement proves what the extensive agricultural resources of Louisiana can
produce, when combined with our state’s incomparable workforce and the investment of technology in
state-of-the-art facilities,” said Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. “The Zagis project in Lacassine
has shown the value of Louisiana’s cotton resources and our ability to add tremendous value to
those resources through agribusiness investments. This new cotton spinning facility in Bunkie will
bring hundreds of jobs to Avoyelles Parish and the Central Louisiana economy, providing great
career opportunities for Louisiana families for many years to come.”
December 10, 2013
