Founded in 1928, its research division developed such things as Tyrex (for the tire cord market), improved rayon and nylon, and by-products for detergent makers and paper mills.

It helped bolster the economies of Western North Carolina, West Virginia, Eastern Kentucky, Eastern Tennessee, Northern Georgia and Northern Alabama during the Great Depression and thereafter; its founding in 1928 by Dutch capital led the way for German, Swiss, and British investments in the American South,[1] and it was one of the companies on the original Fortune 500 list.

By 1928, it had merged with several other Dutch and German firms, so that Business Week would subsequently describe it as a "giant international textile combine".

With the death of Hofstede Crull in 1938, the ISEM was fully integrated with the AKU, the Algemene Kunstzijde Unie which had resulted when the German Vereinigte Glanzstoff-Fabriken merged with the Nederlandse Kunstzijdefabriek in 1929.

Initially, the Dutch brought in technicians and workers from the Netherlands to supervise the creation of the physical plant and to train an American labor force the skills necessary for the manufacturing of rayon.

Caprolactam, wood pulp, sulfuric acid, caustic soda and carbon disulfide needed for rayon production came from eastern Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia.

[6][1][10][11] Back in the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950, the American Enka was known for its superior rayon for it was used by everyone from Maurice Rentner[12] to L'Aiglon[13] and mentioned in advertisements appearing in periodicals such as Harper's Bazaar and Vogue.

These also were teamed with high quality stores including Saks Fifth Avenue, Julius Garfinckel, Harzfeld's, Best & Co. Neiman-Marcus, Bloomingdale's, Bergdorf Goodman, Marshall Field's, I. Magnin, etc.

[1][6] Already during the late thirties, the ENKA had begun a relationship with the textile research group at the National Bureau of Standards.

The American Enka supported a formal program of college education for its own work force in which its employees could participate in their spare time.

Two examples are Claude Swanson Ramsey, Jr., who began his career in the ENKA's industrial relations department and would over time become president of the company;[17] and James E. Bostic, Jr., who would begin his career at the ENKA and go on to Washington, D.C., and then take on varied executive positions in the paper industry and serve on various boards as the first black director or trustee.

It began to produce a nonwoven named Colback which was/is used in carpet backing, automotive and industrial applications and Geosynthetics Products used in the building and environmental markets.

[22] Today what began as the ENKA in Asheville, North Carolina, and the part that became Colbond with its overseas plants are now divisions of London, England-based Low & Bonar.