Shawn and Doug Paul, new owners of Acadian Industrial Textiles, are two veterans with a vision for business growth.

“On our first date 20 years ago, Doug suggested the idea of growing a business,” said Shawn Paul, President. “After serving in the military and spending 30 years combined working in global supply chain at GE, we understand how to connect with companies around the world to source quality products. It was just a matter of finding the right opportunity to have a business of our own.”

In 2021, after evaluating about 40 small companies, many in the Triangle area, they found Acadian and it looked like a perfect fit. After meeting the couple who had owned and operated the business since 2011, they were sure.

“We were very intentional about the kind of business we wanted to purchase. When we saw the Acadian opportunity, it checked all our boxes,” she said. “We knew we could build on their solid customer base, knowledgeable staff, and reputation for great products.”

Shawn holds majority ownership and is proud to lead the enterprise. “But it’s really a team effort, Doug is always there with me working side by side and he spends more of his time in our supply chain consulting business, at least for now”

Doug explains his perspective on the rationale like this: “We had three things we were solving for personally when we bought Acadian Industrial Textiles. First, we wanted to work for ourselves, second it had to leverage our B2B supply chain expertise, and ultimately it had to give us an opportunity to teach business to our sons directly who are now aged 14 and 16.”

 Acadian serves customers across North America with a variety of high-quality fabrics from textile mills around the world. The primary customers they serve are in the agriculture, horticulture, trucking and construction industries. Acadian provides flexibility to quickly deliver quantities from single rolls to container loads. Common applications for their fabrics include crop and animal shade, truck tarps, insect and bird netting and privacy/containment.

Since 2011, Acadian Industrial Textiles was based in the North Hills area of Raleigh but the Pauls’ decided to move it closer to where they live and wanted an opportunity to directly engage with the quickly growing business community of Holly Springs. They have joined the Holly Springs Chamber of Commerce and anticipate regularly joining their events. “As a military and then GE family we’ve haven’t lived anywhere longer than six years during the last 30 so connecting with the local business community is absolutely critical to the way we wanted to work and live.”

“We’re shifting from being a fabric vendor to being a true expert in industrial textiles,” said Shawn. “We can help customers find new uses for existing products or design their own custom fabrics with our partner mills.”

Shawn has talked with dozens of customers directly since taking the reins in November and being their resource for everything textile. “We’re committed to continue providing excellent products and service to our current customers, as well as grow our customer base with new products and services. Customers have so many great stories, and I love following-up with them to make sure they got what they needed.” For more information about Acadian Industrial Textiles, visit acadiantextiles.com.



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