Delta Apparel Shifts Production to Produce Cotton Face Masks to Help Fight Spread of COVID-19
GREENVILLE, S.C., April 14, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Delta Apparel, Inc. (NYSE American: DLA), a leading provider of core activewear and lifestyle apparel products, today announced that it will leverage its manufacturing facilities to begin producing cotton face masks. The Company has joined a coalition of iconic apparel brands that are responding to urgent calls for companies to help produce face masks during the COVID-19 global pandemic. Once fully ramped up, the coalition, inclusive of Delta Apparel, expects to produce up to 10 million face masks per week in the United States and in Central America.
Robert W. Humphreys, Delta Apparel, Inc.’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, commented, “We are extremely proud to offer the resources we have available for the manufacture of face masks to help support those hospitals and health care workers on the front lines, as well as all Americans battling the spread of COVID-19. We have already begun production of the face masks in our sewing facility in North Carolina and expect to begin production in Honduras this week.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control recently issued recommendations on wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain, such as grocery stores and pharmacies, and especially in areas of significant community-based transmission. In addition to the production of face masks with the coalition, Delta Apparel is also producing and selling non-medical grade face coverings.
Mr. Humphreys concluded, “We are proud of our dedicated workforce who wanted to participate in these efforts and quickly took on the challenge to retool our production lines to begin making these masks and face coverings. Of course, the safety of our employee base is of utmost importance to us. We are following the recommended protocols within our facilities, including providing face masks for our employees to wear, implementing social distancing protocols, and increasing sanitation and cleanliness measures.”
About Delta Apparel, Inc.
Delta Apparel, Inc., along with its operating subsidiaries, DTG2Go, LLC, Salt Life, LLC, and M.J. Soffe, LLC, is a vertically-integrated, international apparel company that designs, manufactures, sources, and markets a diverse portfolio of core activewear and lifestyle apparel products under the primary brands of Salt Life®, COAST®, Soffe®, and Delta. The Company is a market leader in the direct-to-garment digital print and fulfillment industry, bringing DTG2Go technology and innovation to the supply chain of its customers. The Company specializes in selling casual and athletic products through a variety of distribution channels and tiers, including outdoor and sporting goods retailers, independent and specialty stores, better department stores and mid-tier retailers, mass merchants and e-retailers, the U.S. military, and through its business-to-business e-commerce sites. The Company’s products are also made available direct-to-consumer at its branded retail stores and on its websites at www.saltlife.com, www.coastapparel.com, www.soffe.com and www.deltaapparel.com as well as through its branded retail stores. The Company’s operations are located throughout the United States, Honduras, El Salvador, and Mexico, and it employs approximately 8,200 people worldwide. Additional information about the Company is available at www.deltaapparelinc.com.
Company Contact:
Deborah Merrill, 864-232-5200 x6620
investor.relations@deltaapparel.com
Investor Relations and Media Contact:
ICR, Inc.
Investors:
Tom Filandro, 646-277-1235
Media:
Jessica Liddell, 203-682-8208
DLAPR@icrinc.com
Released April 14, 2020