Vidalia Mills property, inventory to be auctioned Aug. 6 – Mississippi’s Best Community Newspaper

VIDALIA, La. — All property and inventory of Vidalia Mills is set to be sold at a Sheriff’s Sale at the Concordia Parish Courthouse in Vidalia on Aug. 6 at 10 a.m.

The plant closed in November 2024. Former Vidalia CEO Dan Feibus promised it would reopen, but it did not, leaving employees claiming they were due unpaid wages and tax documents.

According to industry publication SJDenim, all inventory and property will be sold together; no bids will be accepted on individual lots or items.

During Vidalia Mills’ startup in 2018, the company was granted a $25 million loan from Jefferson Financial Federal Credit Union and another $5 million from Greater Nevada Credit Union for additional equipment and working capital. According to 7th Judicial District Court records, the loan payments were twice deferred. The first deferment was dated May 22, 2020, and the second was dated Jan. 27, 2021.

The facility and land, soon to be auctioned off, became the Town of Vidalia’s property after the departure of Fruit of the Loom in 2017. In 2018, the town sold it to Vidalia Industrial for $12 million. However, in an agreement facilitated by Natchez Inc., $8 million of the purchase was to be granted back to Vidalia Mills for capital improvements to the site.

There was also a clawback agreement that if Vidalia Industrial did not meet certain payroll requirements, those funds would revert back to the Town of Vidalia. Feibus claims Vidalia Mills met those stipulations with a smaller than expected number of people employed with higher-than-expected wages, but Vidalia Mayor Bus Craft said it did not.  According to the deed paperwork, the city has an option to purchase the property back for $4 million, which is the purchase amount minus the $8 million grant.

To be auctioned are 81.87 acres of land and 12 Draper X3 shuttle looms and an unspecified number of Draper X2 looms, SJDenim reported.

According to SJDenim, the auction of the historic looms has stirred considerable attention across the U.S. denim industry, “particularly among brands and manufacturers that value domestic production and authenticity. Several brands have expressed interest in keeping the looms on U.S. soil by making significant upfront investments to mitigate some of the financial risk associated with acquiring the equipment.”

SJ Denim reports, “Mount Vernon in Trion, Ga., is widely viewed as the only obvious U.S. plug-and-play choice for the looms.”