SPRINGVALE — There are names like sea grass, lagoon and ocean blue; sage, amethyst and sable; chokeberry, bubblegum, lava and dozens more.

The colors are names of shades of yarn that are spun here by Jagger Brothers Inc., a company that has been spinning yarn for a long, long time – since 1898, when brothers Samuel and Fred Jagger first started in Springvale in an old shoe factory that is now long gone.

Since 1956, the company has owned and occupied a brick mill building on Water Street that used to be part of the Goodall textile empire. It’s a sturdy property that was built to last in 1920 – built to withstand the vibration of heavy machinery of its earlier time.

Wool, silk, mohair and synthetics are all spun here, producing yarn for industry’s large manufacturers, small production facilities – and, more recently, yarn shops across the country, bringing American-made yarn to American home knitters.

In an era when America’s textile industry has waned in the face of global competition, the company has found and developed new markets.

Among the niche markets are made-in-America sock companies such as Wigwam and Thor-lo, said owner David Jagger. The company also produces yarn for upholstery, rugs and commercially made apparel, and large production orders remain the company’s mainstay.

“Back in the ’80s and ’90s, 90 percent of the socks sold in America were made here,” said Jagger. “Now it’s 40 percent.”

There’s another niche. More than 30 years ago, the company started a division called JaggerSpun, designed to sell yarn for small production weavers while it continued to produce for large ones.

Then, as the art of knitting resurged as a popular home craft, JaggerSpun began marketing its yarn to shops worldwide, from Alaska to Texas in the United States and to Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe, Africa, Asia, South America, Australia and New Zealand.

It’s a niche that appealed to Lesley Finneran, who arrived at Jagger Brothers from New York City last year to manage the JaggerSpun division.

“I’m a weaver and a knitter, so I understand that market,” said Finneran. “It’s a growing part of the business.”

And there are other plusses.

“This is so interesting, being in a working mill and being involved in production,” she said. “There is a lot of growth potential here.”

One of the growing threads of the business is JaggerSpun’s certified organic yarn, called its Green Line, which is spun from 100- percent-certified organic merino wool and available in a palette of 36 colors, dyed locally at Saco River Dyehouse in Biddeford.

There are other lines too, with names like Heather, Zephyr Wool-Silk, The Maine Line, Superfine Merino and an intriguing sounding product line named Super Lamb, a shrink-treated merino.

A look inside the mill last week was at once a step back in time and a glimpse into the future as the yarn company spins its way into new markets. There is older, circa-1960s machinery as well as much newer equipment, and the company’s 39 workers use both in the process of transforming combed top – the combed fiber that, through several processes, is turned into yarn for America and the world.

Hanging prominently in the lobby is a portrait of Uriah Jagger, who emigrated to Sanford from Bradford, England, in 1884 with his wife and four children when textile baron Thomas Goodall offered him a job. Sam and Fred were his sons.

David is the grandson of Sam Jagger, and he and his cousin Tom ran the company together for about 20 years before Tom retired in 1995.

Jagger Brothers Inc. sales manager Scott Grey, a graduate of the Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science, came to Jagger Brothers Inc. in the mid- 1980s and knows every facet of production.

On a recent tour, Grey explained the process from the time the combed fiber arrives through the doors of the brick mill building in 500- to 1,500-pound bales and is spun into yarn through an elaborate process from one machine to another, and then is packed for shipping.

One type of fiber may be sent through machines called pin drafters, where it is blended with another – wool and silk, for example – or with a synthetic, like nylon, before it is passed through a set of rub rollers and finally spun in two, three or four ply yarn.

Product and market development continues. The company is now making yarn samples for a firm that plans to manufacture flame-retardant fabric, Grey said.

Many employees have been with the company for decades. Plant manager Linda Bishop is coming up on 39 years; employee Ansie Stuart, 40 years – but there are some newcomers as well, Gray noted.

Paul Schumacher of Southern Maine Planning and Development Commission said the region sports a number of textile manufacturers, including Jagger Brothers Inc., Sanford rug maker Flemish Master Weavers and Hyperlite Mountain Gear, which manufactures durable lightweight outdoors gear in Biddeford.

And there are some smaller companies involved in facets of the textile industry too, looking to create an industry incubator, said Schumacher.

“There is a cluster of businesses and skills surrounding textiles, and there is some interest to see if that can grow within the region,” Schumacher said.

“He’s found a niche, and he has a good staff,” said Sanford Springvale Chamber of Commerce President Richard Stanley of Jagger and his company. “They’re not only woven into the community, but companies like Jagger Brothers Inc. have put Sanford on the map because of who they are and who they sell to.”

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, ext. 327 or twells@journaltribune.com.