Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 9, 1994 TAG: 9409090054
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
O. Randolph Rollins, a partner in the Richmond-based law firm of McGuire Woods Battle & Boothe, on Thursday was named executive vice president and general counsel at Tultex, effective Oct.1.
Rollins, who was Virginia secretary of public safety from 1990 to 1994, is the brother-in-law of Tultex Chairman John Franck.
Rollins, who will report to President and Chief Operating Officer Charles W. Davies Jr., has not previously been involved in the business, but has a 20-year background in corporate finance and business strategy.
His appointment, Rollins said, comes as Tultex is overleveraged. The company also faces a continuing lackluster business atmosphere plus negotiations with the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union.
The union last month won an election at the Martinsville plant, which employs almost 2,000. Tultex has operations in four states and Jamaica and employs about 6,000 systemwide.
The company's situation has "raised a lot of questions in the minds of employees, the community, analysts and stockholders," said Rollins.
Part of his job will be to answer those questions to improve the company's credibility, he said.
Rollins will help develop a strategic plan for lowering the company debt in relation to its assets and then he'll help communicate that vision, he said.
He does not know if he'll be involved directly in talks with the union.
The company has to find "additional equity or have positive earnings," to lower its debt, and the deflated price of its stock doesn't help matters, Rollins said.
Tultex stock, which lost 18 cents a share in the first quarter of this year, is trading at $5, down from a 52-week high of $9.121/2.
Rollins will work at the corporate headquarters in Martinsville, but said he will keep his home in Richmond.
by CNB