Westerly - The former Bradford Dyeing Association plant, battered by a fire last year and a shutdown last month, will gain a new life in January as 75 employees once again begin filling orders for military uniforms.

”It's good news during bad times,” said Nick Griseto, former head of marketing for Bradford Dyeing, who will be reopening the plant under a new name, Bradford Printing and Finishing LLC.

The plant employed about 275 at the time of the fire in May 2007 and had more than 100 on hand - many of them union workers - when it suddenly shut down last month. At one time, the nearly century-old company was the biggest employer in town.

Griseto, president of the new company, said Wednesday that a job fair for new workers will be held from noon to 6 p.m. Dec. 22 at the Westerly Armory. He expects between 500 and 1,000 people to apply for the 50 or so production jobs.

”We're already getting job applications for plant positions - some people with master's degrees,” Griseto said. “We want to get people working as fast as we can.”

Griseto said the job fair, staffed by the company and the Rhode Island Department of Labor, will be followed by resume evaluations the following day and call-backs for additional interviews Dec. 29.

The company hopes to hire everyone by the end of the year, hold a ribbon-cutting Jan. 5 and start production work Jan. 6.

The company has plenty of work to keep it busy, Griseto said, and enough fabric on hand to start up right away.

Griseto foresees the plant continuing to specialize in manufacturing textiles used as part of military uniforms, which by law are required to be manufactured in the United States.

”It's really the only safe haven for textile manufacturing in this country,” he said. “Everything else is done in Third World countries.”

In addition to Griseto, the management team will include chief financial officer Vasco Ferreira and director of operations Craig Nichols. Other prospective managers include several from the previous regime, headed by Michael R. Grills, but Griseto promised a far more open dialog with employees, including their involvement in a guiding coalition.

He said he has had no dialog with the former union at Bradford Dyeing, UNITE Here! Local 432. Whether to unionize, he said, would be a majority decision of the workers whom he hires.

Griseto said the new textile-manufacturing plant will employ “Lean” production techniques to improve efficiencies.

Plans currently call for only one shift of plant employees, but Griseto hopes to increase employment and add a second shift after the new company's first year.

He added that the eventual reconstruction of a bleach house - destroyed in last year's fire - will also increase the need for employees.

”We want to get to much larger levels, but we're starting conservatively,” Griseto said.

L.HOWARD@THEDAY.COM

Article UID=05523814-6803-480c-8800-317be481a56b