Our Mission
Pacolet is not merely a financial enterprise, but also a vehicle through which shareholder values are expressed in business strategies that improve the communities and environment in which we live.
We are a family-owned investment company with a multi-generational investment horizon. Our long-term financial goals are to increase the intrinsic value of its business while meeting the dividend expectations of its shareholders.
We embrace our shareholders’ mandate to operate at the intersection of profitability and values.
As a company, we have a particular emphasis on sustainability, community involvement, and culture. We seek to demonstrate these values in tangible ways through our everyday business versus merely pronouncing our support.
Strategically, we are direct investors – owning both operating companies and project investments. We look for defensible, middle-market niches within compelling trends. We invest with institutional discipline, but can be more patient about investment hold periods than rigid IRR investors, who seek to monetize gains as soon as possible.
Our Goal
To represent the highest standard by which family‑owned investment enterprises are measured.
Our Goal
To represent the highest standard by which family‑owned investment enterprises are measured.
Our Heritage
Within five years, Seth Milliken was selling the production of five other woolen mills. That number would grow to 16 by 1900, and to 40 by 1920.
1865-1920
Seth Milliken
As the Civil War ended, Seth Milliken and his partner William Deering opened a general store in Portland, Maine doing business as Deering Milliken. As an afterthought, they became textile sales agents for the nearby Farnsworth Mill.
In 1874, after a fire destroyed their building and everything they owned except for potatoes, they were left with no choice but to load the potatoes on a sailboat bound for New York, where they were able to sell what was left of their inventory. Having no business to return to in Maine, the partners re-established their business in New York and expanded their agency business from woolens into cotton.
In 1884, they expanded southward and became selling agents and part owners of Pacolet Manufacturing Company in Spartanburg, South Carolina. In 1904, William Deering moved to Chicago and founded Deering Harvesting Machinery Company, which later became International Harvester. Within five years, Seth Milliken was selling the production of five other woolen mills. That number would grow to 16 by 1900 and to 40 by 1920.
That project was to grow over the next 25 years into what is now the world’s largest center of applied textile research, the Roger Milliken Research Center in Spartanburg, SC.
1920-1945
Gerrish Milliken
In 1920, Seth Milliken was succeeded by his son, Gerrish. During the World War I years, Gerrish directed the textile industry’s wartime effort and became a leader in the introduction of rayon fabrics. Later, during World War II, the War Production Board issued the company a Certificate of Necessity to manufacture nylon tire cord. In response, the Excelsior Tire Cord Plant was built.
This plant was a one-story building that was arranged in a manner to facilitate the flow of raw material through all stages of manufacture and delivery to the shipping dock. It was the first textile mill built without windows and with complete air cleaning and cooling systems and became the standard for post-war manufacturing facilities.
In 1945, Gerrish founded the Deering Milliken Research Trust and started operating in a house near the Excelsior Tire Cord Plant. It was there that the first research development of worldwide significance was developed—a patented, edge-crimping texturing process for nylon continuous filament yarn. That project was to grow over the next 25 years into what is now the world’s largest center of applied textile research, the Roger Milliken Research Center in Spartanburg, SC.
In 2007, as his family entered into their sixth generation of stewardship, he founded Pacolet Milliken Enterprises. He passed away in 2010 and requested that his tombstone have only the inscription, “Builder.”
1945-2010
Roger Milliken
In 1947, Gerrish Milliken was succeeded by his son, Roger, who moved to Spartanburg, SC and began the consolidation of the “Milliken Mills” – 35 separate companies with many outside shareholders. By 1960, Roger had reorganized them into a single corporation and began building new plants in the Southeastern U.S., Europe and Asia. In 1963, the company bought Amerotron, the textile division of Textron.
The 1970’s saw the invention of the first polymer bound chemical, which became the genesis for the Milliken Chemical Division and its versatile polymer bound chemistry technology platform. During that period, Milliken also entered the carpet market, acquiring Callaway Mills, and then introduced ink-jet technology and computer-control tufted carpet printing.
In 1976, Deering Milliken officially became Milliken & Company. Producing textiles, chemicals and packaging, Milliken & Company had become one of the largest privately owned manufacturing companies in the world. During the 1980’s, Roger Milliken developed a laser-like focus on quality as the company’s foundation. His efforts were recognized by the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the European Quality Award, the Deming Prize in Japan, the British Quality Award, and the Canadian Quality Prize. That period also saw him lead the “Crafted with Pride in USA” nationwide campaign.
In 1998, Mercantile Stores, a Milliken holding from the Depression Era which had grown into a national retailer operating in 102 locations in 17 states, was sold to Dillards. In 1999, the industry’s trade publication, Textile World, selected Roger Milliken as the textile industry’s Leader of the Century.
He served on many corporate and nonprofit boards, including Wofford College, Arthur D. Little, Westinghouse, Citicorp, Mercantile, W.R. Grace, the Institute of Textile Technology, and the Heritage Foundation. In 2004, he was elected as an honorary member of both the American Society of Architects and the American Society of Landscape Architects.
In 2007, as his family entered into their sixth generation of stewardship, he founded Pacolet Milliken Enterprises. He passed away in 2010 and requested that his tombstone have only the inscription, “Builder.”
Pacolet Milliken offices in Downtown Greenville, SC.
2007 - Today
Pacolet Today
Pacolet Milliken Enterprises was spun out of Milliken & Company in December 2007 and was initially capitalized with excess capital and a collection of stranded assets. These assets included Lockhart Power Company, a regulated electric utility, and 30,000 acres of diverse land holdings, ranging from timber and undeveloped tracts in the Southeast, to a parcel in Bryant Park, New York City. Since that time, Pacolet Milliken has evolved into its current form – two uncorrelated divisions (Real Estate and Power & Infrastructure) that seek to provide superior risk-adjusted returns and cashflow to its shareholders.
Over its first decade of operations, Pacolet Real Estate co-developed and sold 7 Bryant Park, a 33-story office tower in New York and accumulated a portfolio of retail and office investments. In 2015, Real Estate pivoted to focus on the multifamily, industrial warehouse, and self-storage assets classes, as well as mezz/pref investments.
Beginning in 2013, Pacolet Power & Infrastructure expanded beyond Lockhart Power to begin building a substantial solar and landfill gas portfolio, and acquired Bushy Park, a 1,500-acre industrial park that delivers utilities and services to large chemical manufacturing tenants. Since that time, it has further expanded its renewable and infrastructure investments to include an ISO container storage and cleaning operation (Hydera) and a 55 MW biomass plant (Piedmont Green Power), as well as wind and renewable natural gas projects.
Pacolet’s balance sheet is permanent, and it is a direct owner/manager of all its investments. Its objective is to continue to grow both divisions, consistent with its financial and risk parameters, as well as its core values.
Governance & Philosophy
The Pacolet shareholders have spent decades developing their governance structure, and it has become a strong differentiating factor for Pacolet, both internally and when working with third parties. Currently, seven of our ten Board seats are held by non-shareholder directors; three are held by shareholders. An active group of shareholder observers enlarges the depth of owner knowledge about Pacolet’s operations.
We believe this is an efficient framework through which shareholders can convey their collective intent to Pacolet’s management and its Board, and, at the same time, leverage the skills and judgment of non-shareholder Board members who are experts in their respective fields.
