One of Pergamino's Lebanese immigrants, Isaac Annan, established the city's first garment factory during the late 1940s, creating Far West Jeans and Manhattan Shirts, two of Argentina's best-known domestic clothing brands. By 1970, Wrangler Jeans, Fiorucci, Levi's, Lee Jeans and a number of local firms, had established large textile plants, employing about 6,000. Roberto Genoud, the son of French immigrants, established the area's largest lumber and furniture factory. Pergamino continued to grow, reaching a population of 70,000 in 1980, becoming northern Buenos Aires Province's industrial center. Economic instability nationwide began to take its toll on that sector after 1975, however, and by 1985 a number of local textile manufacturers had closed or were replaced by smaller cooperatives. The city was chosen as the site for the prestigious National Viral Research Institute (INEVH) in 1978, and was home to one of the nation's first cable television stations in 1985. The city's main daily, "La Opinión", closed in 1989 amid a national economic crisis. Financially distressed, the daily's founders, the Veninis, sold the company to local cable TV entrepreneur Hugo Apesteguía, the current owner.