Brintons Usaxminster, a British manufacturer that made luxury carpets for cruise ships, nightclubs and hotels, has announced that it plans to shutter its Greenville, Miss., package dye plant plant by year's end.

"All of the equipment will be relocated to company plants outside the United States," said Deborah Adams, the company's vice president of Marketing. "There will be no reduction in (manufacturing) capacity."

Adams added that an unspecified number of Greenville plant employees will be offered reassignments within the company. She also said that Brintons will no longer manufacture product in the United States, opting instead to treat this country as "a sales and marketing hub."

Two-hundred and forty employees work at the 17-acre facility, which was built in 1953 and acquired by Brintons in 1998. The company, which is currently in process of downsizing its operations worldwide, recently sold its yarn mill in New Zealand and reduced its U.K.-based workforce.

Brintons hopes to find a buyer for the Greenville plant and whatever furnishings remain once the manufacturing equipment is deployed elsewhere. However, Adams expressed doubt that the facility would ever again be used for the manufacture of carpet.