Milliken, crafting a future

By Dick Hughes  

MAY 12, 2011 10:18 a.m. (0)

For 150 years, the face of Milliken, the company, was Milliken, the family.  Over the last six decades, it was Roger Milliken.

He transformed the company from a cloth, cut and sew maker to a diversified powerhouse with 2,200 patents, 19,000 products, 7,000 employees and 39 manufacturing plants around the world.

He then put in motion leadership changes to thrive in a global marketplace without him.

With that legacy in mind, the company announced, with uncharacteristic fanfare, rebranding – literally, Roger Milliken’s signature – and pointed emphasis on elevating its already high-level commitment to “deep science” in product innovation.

Milliken, who died in December at the age of 95, had led the company for 60 years and began preparing in the 1980s to slowly relinquish power to prepare for the day he would be gone and no family member would hold operational control.

“We realized that when Mr. Milliken was alive, he was Milliken,” said Richard Dillard, director of corporate public affairs, in a telephone interview.  “He was larger than life.”

Dillard said “as part of being an innovation company, we realize it is important to connect to the outside world and communicate in a controlled manner what we are doing not only to our very close customers.”

Dillard, who has worked for Milliken for 35 years, said because of the private nature of Roger Milliken, his contributions to the community were not always well known, such as being instrumental in creating the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport and his support for local colleges.

“He believed in doing the right thing for the right reasons, and he really did not mind who got the recognition.  Nor did he seek recognition.”

Going forward, Dillard said, the company may “communicate those things that we are doing well more openly.”

Dawn Werry, who joined Milliken in January as director of marketing and branding, in an exchange by email, said the initiative “is actually about innovation, not transparency,” to develop products that add value “to people’s lives, and makes the world healthier, safer and more beautiful.”

“Although we do believe that transparency is a critical part of this initiative, it is important to note that Milliken continues to be a privately owned company, and we continue to believe that the confidentiality of our financial information and our long-range plans give us an important competitive advantage.”

Milliken has never released sales figures or other financial information.  It is among the largest privately held companies in the nation. There are no plans to take the company public, but “it always is wise advice to never say never,” Dillard said.

Milliken does not itself produce goods consumers see in stores; it supplies specialty chemicals, floor coverings, specialty fabrics and other performance products, as well as consulting services, to companies that do.  It produces 19,000 different chemical and textile products.

In a presentation to Spartanburg employees and guests April 26 at the arboretum on Milliken’s sprawling Spartanburg campus, Joe Salley, president and chief executive officer, unveiled the new logo and innovation commitment as one “even more ambitions” than Roger Milliken’s determination 30 years ago to focus on quality.

What that means in practical terms, said Dillard, is that the company will direct even greater resources to the “deep science” research Roger Milliken began.

“He built a world-class research center here in Spartanburg 50 years ago before research was cool, and we’ve built upon that commitment to innovation, and what this new initiative with the new branding and logo rollout signifies is an outward commitment to achieving even more in the innovation area.”

The company has more than 100 PhD scientists so “engrossed in creating new products that they often lose track of time,” Dillard said.

Milliken built its first chemical plant for fabric finishes in Inman in 1963. It was a trailblazer for double-knit and synthetic fabrics and established an early foothold in world trade, opening plants and offices in Europe in the mid 1960s.

Roger Milliken, who became president of the company upon the death of his father in 1947, began a slow transition to non family leadership in 1983 when he turned over the presidency to Thomas Malone and took on the position of chairman and chief executive officer.

When Malone retired in 2002, Ashley Allen became president.  In 2006, Milliken “stepped aside from daily management” and Allen became CEO.  Salley succeed Allen in 2008.   Significantly, Malone, Allen and Salley all hold PhD degrees in chemical science or engineering and began their careers in research.

Werry, who is responsible for centralizing the marketing and branding, also has a technical background.  She has an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering, as well as an MBA and has 19 years of experience in the chemical and performance fibers industry. She joined Milliken from DuPont.

Milliken retained his position as chairman of the board until his death and “was very much a part of the multi-year strategy that culminated in this new branding initiative,” said Dillard.

Today, he said, “there are family members on the board but no one in an active role in the day-to-day operation of the company.”