Just over 100 employees found out last week they are going to be without a job early in the New Year as Gildan Yarns plans to consolidate operations and will be closing the Cedartown plant and moving the equipment elsewhere.

The announcement made last week to officials came as a surprise even to management on site with the plant closure.

Per other reporting on the matter, letters were sent out to the 107 employees on staff at the plant located in Cedartown’s Northside Industrial Park.

Local officials are working to get help for those employees, some who have been on the job for almost two decades at the plant that was a joint venture with Frontier Spinning Mills opened in 2003.

The Canadian firm has yarn facilities across the globe in North America, Europe, the Asia-Pacific region and Latin America.

Officials did not yet know much about the plans Gildan has for the facility, but DAPC Cheif Executive Chris Thomas said he believed Cedartown’s plant will get filled with another industry in time.

“I don’t think we’ll have any issues getting someone in there based on the activity we’ve seen around us in recent years and across Georgia,” Thomas said.

His and other local officials main focus is getting those who are losing their jobs a new one as soon as possible.