Hartford, CT – At his notorious press conference in Sprague last month, Tom Foley told workers that he had never closed a mill down.

“‘I have never closed a mill down, sir. I didn’t close the Bibb mill.  A subsequent owner closed it. So, please get your facts right,’ Foley said.”

According to a Connecticut Mirror story by Mark Pazniokas, that was a falsehood and Tom Foley has been lying about his Bibb record:

“Foley was right about the Bibb finally closing after he no longer owned it. But according to HFN, a weekly trade paper published by the Home Furnishings Network, Foley did order the sale of two mills and cut hundreds of jobs when the Bibb could not meet its debts.”

“On Nov. 27, 1995, HFN quoted Foley announcing plans to liquidate fabric plans in Rockingham, N.C., and Abbeville, S.C. after trying unsuccessfully to find buyers.”

“‘Instead of running it at a reduced schedule, we have decided to move that equipment into other facilities that have plenty of space to handle it,’ Foley told the paper.”

…

“In May 1995, HFN reported that Bibb had missed a $9 million interest payment on a $160 million debt to bondholders and that Foley, who took over as chief executive the previous year, had cut $10 million in overhead, about half of which came from cutting the workforce from 6,000 to 5,500.”

“Of the $4 million in annual management fees his company, NTC Holdings, collected from Bibb, Foley told the paper, ‘I’m sure that will be part of negotiations with bondholders.’”

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Click here for the HFN story.