Textiles & Technical Fabrics
Manufacturers of apparel, technical textiles, nonwovens, fiber and yarn products, and specialty fabrics for consumer and industrial applications.
- 5
- Verticals
- 23
- Sub-verticals
Overview
Textiles & Technical Fabrics covers fiber, yarn, and fabric mills, nonwovens, textile finishing and coating, carpets, and technical and industrial textile products. At ~$50B across ~7,000 establishments, the segment has been in long-term decline as commodity textile production shifted offshore, leaving a base focused on technical, industrial, and nonwoven fabrics.
Demand has been roughly flat as commodity decline offsets growth in technical textiles, nonwovens (driven by hygiene, medical, and filtration), and domestic specialty production. It is fragmented and consolidating, with technical and nonwoven fabrics the durable, higher-value future of U.S. textile manufacturing.
Market snapshot
- Market size
- ~$50B
- Growth
- ~-0.2%CAGR (2017–22, nominal)
- Companies
- ~6,791 firms
78.2% of firms have fewer than 20 employees: 5,309 micro-businesses, below most mandates.
- 20–99
- 95264%
- 100–499
- 33823%
- 500+
- 19213%
The only segment here that shrank, and the only one where that is structural rather than cyclical — commodity textile production continues to leave. What remains and grows is technical: nonwovens, coated fabrics and industrial textiles sold on specification into filtration, medical and automotive. The aggregate decline conceals that split.
NAICS 313110, 313210, 313220, 313230, 313240, 313310, 313320, 314110, 314120, 314910, 314994, 314999, 316110. U.S. Census Bureau — 2022 Statistics of U.S. Businesses; U.S. Census Bureau — 2022 Economic Census.
Business model & economics
Revenue model
Fiber, fabric, and technical-textile manufacturing
Key economics
- Revenue per firm
- $7,547,253
- Revenue per employee
- $278,997
- Employees per firm
- 28.4
- Recurring revenue
- Moderate
- EBITDA margin
- Thin commodity; richer technical/nonwoven
- Capex intensity
- Moderate
recurring industrial and technical supply
Characteristics
- Scale-driven — payroll is only 17% of revenue; the cost base is assets, not headcount
- Deep strategic-buyer pool — 192 firms exceed 500 employees, so a scaled asset has trade buyers
- Long-term commodity decline; technical/nonwoven future.
- Nonwovens driven by hygiene, medical, and filtration.
- Fragmented, consolidating domestic base.
NAICS 313110, 313210, 313220, 313230, 313240, 313310, 313320, 314110, 314120, 314910, 314994, 314999, 316110. U.S. Census Bureau — 2022 Statistics of U.S. Businesses; U.S. Census Bureau — 2022 Economic Census.
Geographic concentration
The one segment that did not follow the Midwest: the Carolinas remain the centre of American textile production, and Rhode Island retains a narrow-fabrics and braiding cluster far older than the industry's southern migration.
U.S. Census Bureau — 2022 Statistics of U.S. Businesses (firms by state), NAICS 313110/313210/313220/313230/313240/313310/313320/314110/314120/314910/314994/314999/316110. Concentration shown by location quotient.
M&A deal context
Who’s acquiring
- Technical-textile & nonwoven strategics
- PE-backed platforms
- Specialty-fabric consolidators
What’s driving deals
- Technical-textile and nonwoven growth.
- Consolidation amid commodity decline.
- Domestic specialty and reshoring niches.
Verticals in this segment
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