Fabric of the times: a 129-year-old textile maker, Glen Raven continues to prosper because it wouldn't stick to its knitting.

• Author: Martin, Edward
• Position: PICTURE THIS

Alien Gant Jr. is out of pantyhose--which helps explain why Glen Raven Inc., as it nears its 130th birthday, still thrives after scores of other Tar Heel textile companies have vanished. Gant is CEO, and his father is credited with developing pantyhose in the 1950s. But after workplace dress rules started going soft in the '80s and slacks nudged out skirts, the pantyhose market took a hit. Glen Raven got out of women's hosiery and didn't look back. "We're not afraid of walking away from a business that can no longer produce a profit. If a market goes sideways, we plow our investments into something that has more value to us."

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Such as its best seller, Sunbrella, an acrylic fabric used in awnings, boat covers and other protective products. Or construction fabrics that hold soil in place. "We're stabilizing sand in Egypt, being used for road underlays in India and marketing products that will be used in the United States to reduce the cost of highways and increase the speed of building them dramatically."

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Family ownership often leaves companies hidebound, but not this one. Founded in Alamance County in 1880 by Civil War veteran John Q. Gant, it has since passed through a half-dozen successors. Allen Jr. became CEO in 1996. Along the way, it invested heavily in research and development as it segued from cotton into blends of cotton and rayon and acetate, then to nylon and ultimately acrylics. Sunbrella began as a cotton fabric, but the company found that acrylic fiber...