CRANSTON – Cranston Print Works Co. plans to lay off about 75 workers, mostly in central Massachusetts, as its phases out a fabric-printing operation that dates back to 1824.

“One of the divisions we have prints fabric, and we sell the fabric to such large customers as Joann Fabric [or] Wal-Mart … and a large amount of fabric to mom-and-pop fabric stores nationwide,” Herb Gray, the company’s vice president of human resources, told Providence Business News today.

Seventy-five percent of production in the 185-year-old Cranston division – responsible for CPW’s fabric printing and design – is now accomplished at a 450,000-square-foot plant in Webster, Mass., south of Worcester.

“The Webster plant is a premier cotton-print plant, known throughout the world for its quality and cutting-edge technology,” Cranston’s president, Andrew F. Sylvia, said in a statement. “This reputation was built through the dedication and commitment of employees who worked here over the years and gave their best every day,” and over the years, has brought the company a host of awards.

“But for a whole host of reasons,” Gray told PBN, “we’ve just had to make a decision that we can no longer print the fabric here in America.” Instead, the company plans outsource the printing and the preliminary pattern-engraving to manufacturers in China and other Pacific Rim nations, where a fraction of its printing already is done.

“Cranston has become proficient in global sourcing during the past 10 years,” Sylvia said, “and will continue to provide the highest quality product and service.”

Once the fabric is printed, it will be shipped to the United States, and “we’ll inspect it and pack it here, in our Webster facilities,” Gray said. “We’ll also be retaining our customer service, sales and design force.”

The company’s “manufacturing expertise in printing and finishing will remain,” Sylvia said, and “we will continue to provide innovation and creativity through our VIP, Quilting Treasures and Cranston Home brands.” He pledged that the transition “will be seamless to our customers.”

Besides the Cranston operating group, CPW also has a Diversified Operations group that includes the Cranston Trucking Co. and specialty chemical manufacturer Bercen Inc. “Those people are not impacted at all by this decision,” Gray said. The Cranston group’s design, sales and executive offices in New York City also will be unaffected, the company said.

The layoffs will amount to about a third of CCW’s current staff, and 60 percent of the workers in its Cranston textile division. “Prior to this decision, we were about 225 … that’s the entire company,” Gray said. “There was about 125 of those in this textile group … so when all is said and done, in that textile group, that’ll be about 60.”

Those idled will include “maybe one or two people” in Rhode Island, he said. “But the large majority of the people being laid off are in Webster, Mass. And yes, we’re bringing in the state” and seeking federal Trade Adjustment Assistance for the workers, who also will be receiving severance pay – and substantial notice.

The layoff process will stretch “over the next several months, and hopefully, it will be completed by May 31,” Gray said. Printing at the Webster facility will continue while printing gets underway abroad and the company builds up “proper inventory.”

“We had a series of meetings with our employees yesterday to explain our decision” and the planned severance package, he added, and “while obviously disappointed and hurt by the decision,” most do understand the company’s situation.

“Our traditional over-the-counter fabric market continues to be highly competitive and oversupplied,” explained Sylvia, the Cranston president. And in recent years, “the marketplace has become more customized and less volume-driven, causing excess capacity and increased costs. Moreover, as we have successfully launched new product categories to expand our business, many of these products cannot be produced in Webster.

“All of these factors, coupled with the dire economic environment, made it necessary to change our business model,” Sylvia said.

That call wasn’t made any easier by CPW’s status as an employee-owned operation, Gray acknowledged. “Yes, indeed, Cranston Print Works is owned by what you call an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP),” he said. Although management is little different from that at any company, “over the course of their careers, [the workers] receive stock in the company … and we have significant employee input.”

“This was a very difficult and emotional decision,” Sylvia said. “Most employees are veterans of this company, with many over 30 years of service. … I have never been associated with a finer group of people.”

Needle-trade union Unite Here, Local 1751T, represents about 60 of the affected workers, while others are represented by the Machine Printers and Engravers Association (MPEA), the Worcester-based Telegram & Gazette reported.

“This is the oldest textile mill in the country, and it’s succumbed to the economy and the global forces on trade,” said Warren Pepicelli, Unite Here’s international vice president.

Cranston Print Works Co. – an employee-owned company since August 1987 – traces its roots to 1824, making it the nation’s oldest textile printing company. CPW also is the parent of Cranston Trucking Co. and specialty chemical maker Bercen Inc. For more information, visit www.cpw.com.

A short history of the East Village in Webster, Mass. – and the former Old Green Mill, now Cranston Print Works, Webster Division, that was founded by Slater & Tiffany in the nineteenth century – is available at OurJourneys.org.