Founded in 1921 in Mount Airy, North Carolina, Renfro Corporation is the largest manufacturer and marketer of socks in the United States.  Renfro’s founders include W.E. Merritt, W.G. Sydnor, and other local businessmen.  The name is associated with the street on which the Mount Airy Post Office was located – Renfro Hill.

Renfro’s first manufacturing facility was located on Willow Street in a building originally built for tobacco processing.  Twenty-five employees made thirty thousand dozen pairs of children’s socks the first year.  By 1999, 3,900 people were employed and production figures rose to over 40,000,000 dozen pairs of socks per year.

Renfro’s main office is located in Mount airy, but the company has grown to include manufacturing and distribution facilities in other areas of North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Virginia, Tennessee, Canada, and Honduras.  Total production space now exceeds 2,000,000 square feet with distribution centers adding an additional 800,000 square feet.  Renfro’s current customer list covers all major channels of distribution – Mass Market, National Chains, Specialty, and Department Stores.  The product line spans all consumer segments of socks for Men, Boys, Ladies, Girls, and Infants/Toddlers.

Renfro’s only business focus has been marketing and manufacturing socks.  This focus and dedication has led Renfro to make many innovative contributions to the sock industry.  Renfro’s sock sizing specifications are patented and have become the standard for the whole sock industry.  Renfro implemented Quality of Work Life and Total Quality Management programs that stress employee involvement in defining the requirements necessary to produce quality merchandise.  Renfro is the only hosiery manufacturer to be awarded the prestigious Class A MRP II designation.  With the acquisition of Fruit of the Loom socks, Renfro became the owner of the two most automated white sock facilities in the world.  Renfro currently has patents pending for innovations in package design, as well as nine patents pending for equipment already in operation.

Renfro is a market driven company.  Each retail customer is provided with the optimal mix of product, promotions, research and merchandising to optimize sales.  Because shoppers’ needs change constantly, Renfro continuously monitors market trends and recommends products to meet these needs.  In addition to the wide variety of styles and quality of their product, Renfro’s ability to analyze market data and understand consumers’ needs is one of their greatest strengths.  In 1999, Renfro developed new segmentation for the sock category that better represents consumers’ actual purchasing behavior.  This segmentation is now used by every U.S. sock manufacturer for recording and reporting sock production and shipments.  Additionally, Renfro is leading the development of Point of Sale Category Scanner Data across all retail channels.

With the new millennium, Renfro will continue to grow.  The 1996 acquisition of Fruit of the Loom uniquely positioned Renfro to extend its domestic leadership to the rest of the world.  A separate distribution center in Toronto, Canada has been instrumental in elevating Renfro to one of the market share leaders in the Canadian market.  New manufacturing operations in Honduras and Mexico have also positioned Renfro for growth in the Mexico and South American markets.  Over the past 10 years, Renfro’s growth has consistently outpaced the industry.  Renfro plans to continue to be the leader in the sock industry in the United States as well as worldwide.