Established in 1912, Joe Lipke & Sons has been around for almost nine decades. In that time, the Lipke name has proven to be a valuable fixture in Chicago, IL, supplying trimmings to the tailoring trade through three generations.
Bob Lipke (born in 1951), grandson of Joe Lipke, is well aware of his family's lineage. In fact, he perseveres to practice the same values that his grandfather believed in so many years ago.
"Grandpa started the business, and he started it with a horse and buggy," Bob said. "My grandfather was always a wheeler-dealer. Even in World War II, when there were shortages of things, he always was able to come up with merchandise that other people weren't able to come up with. That was just his nature."
Though his grandfather passed away when Bob was quite young, he had made a genuine impact on his childhood memories.
Bob recalled, "I think the first time I ever used scissors was to learn how to cut lining. The scissors they used were gigantic. They were too big for me to handle, so I'd get help from dad or my grandpa."
Though Bob and his brother (a psychologist working for the Veteran's Administration) had many duties -- opening retail, waiting on customers, counting buttons and zippers -- they still found time for fun.
"When we were done doing whatever chores we had to do, we would go into the back and play in the stacks. We would use the cardboard parts of the lining -- the rolls of the lining. We would have sword fights with them."
Shortly after World War II, Bob's father, Leonard, and his uncle, Howard, influenced the family business in their own way. "When they came into the business, you could no longer just sit in the shop and have people come in. They started to go out and actually go towards other ends of the business -- the drycleaning trade and people who weren't in our neighborhood," Bob said.
While Bob's uncle and father built up the business, he enjoyed playing football, basketball and baseball at Evanston High School in Chicago.
Bob especially excelled at baseball, a game he had loved since he began idolizing Nellie Fox, the legendary second baseman for the Chicago White Sox. "It broke my heart when Nellie Fox was traded to Houston," Bob said. "I mean, it just killed me. "
With such a love for the game, it was no surprise that Bob eventually made the all-league team his junior year in high school as an infielder and repeated the honor his senior year as an outfielder.
Eventually, Bob received a baseball scholarship from the University of Denver. "I went to college hoping to play second base. That was my love," he said.
Unfortunately, playing collegiate baseball wasn't the experience Bob had anticipated. "I stopped playing in the middle of my freshman year. It was no longer fun. It became a job. They played 90 games a year. I also came to the realization that, compared to these other guys, I wasn't as good as I thought I was. It was really a slap in the face."
Though disillusioned with the sport he grew up believing in, Bob continued his education and graduated from the University of Denver with dual degrees in history and communications. At that point, he had planned to go to law school, but he was given an opportunity to work in the textile industry, although, ironically, the opportunity did not come from his father.
Bob's father had always given him free reign to choose his own path. "My grandfather said to my father once, 'I don't worry about you, Leonard, because you can always drive a truck,'" Bob said. "I think that stuck with my dad forever. He felt the same way about me, that I could always find something."
What Bob had found after college was an opportunity in New York presented to him by his first wife's father. Bob's father-in-law was employed in the men's clothing business and his company was starting a line of clothing from Daks. Initially, Bob was to serve as the right-hand man for another man in charge of the line.
"Well, this fellow proceeded to have a heart attack in the middle of producing the first line," Bob recalled. "So, it got laid in my lap. I had no experience of producing a line itself -- picking out fabrics and putting together the combinations and making the presentations. But, we did it."
As a result, Bob's efforts were successful enough for the company to make a few million dollars during the line's first season. "It was really kind of astounding," he said.
However, as fate would have it, Bob wasn't destined to be in New York for very long. After he and his first wife divorced, his father-in-law still wanted him to stay with the company. "I just wasn't comfortable with the situation, so I moved back to Chicago," he said.
Bob's path took many turns in the next few years. He worked for Hart, Shaffner and Marx for about six hours, but couldn't be content to cut swatches after having designed a line of clothing. Next up was a brief career as a tennis instructor. Then, Bob had a chance to work with computer surge suppression, a field way ahead of its time.
At the same time, Bob was accepted to the law schools of Kent State University and John Marshall in Chicago. He also had been given a great opportunity as a sales manager in the packaging business. Certainly, a multitude of options were available to him, but his path became clear when he spoke with his father.
"My father, for the first time in his life, asked me to do something. He asked me to stay," Bob remembered. "When he actually asked me, there was no hesitation."
Joe Lipke & Sons wasn't the same company Bob had played in as a kid. For starters, it had to change locations as a result of the Chicago riots in 1968, after Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot.
"We were very well respected and loved in the neighborhood," Bob recollected. The rioters had actually left their store alone and burned the two buildings on either side of the family business, but ironically, those building collapsed into Joe Lipke & Sons. "It was totally destroyed, but my dad and my brother and I went down on a Sunday morning with National Guard protection and got all the records out. We were back in operation within two weeks."
When Bob returned to Joe Lipke & Sons to help his father out, he recalled, "They had no trucks. They used a commercial delivery service to do all of the delivery. We didn't have a forklift. Everything was unloaded by hand."
Over time, all that has changed. After taking over the warehouse, Bob oversaw the company buying its first truck and forklift. The business also has expanded into two warehouses (one is about 16,000 square feet).
Part of the reason for such growth is that Bob joined his father "on the street" gathering new customers. Bob even purchased one of Chicago's first car phones (about $3,000 at the time) in order to call in orders and get deliveries out much quicker.
Bob attributes the business's success to the company's tradition of quality. "Service is what we built our entire business on. Service, and having the products that people need in stock. The oddball stuff that most people don't even think about carrying -- we keep in stock. That's just what we believe in. We believe we are an extension of our customers."
Joe Lipke & Sons pursues quality on other fronts, as well. Most of the sales staff are former drycleaners, which enables the company to give its customers advice on industry problems.
In fact, the Lipkes and their employees have always been active with industry associations and issues. "I think the environmental issues are unquestionably the biggest problems we face as an industry. I grew up walking into drycleaning plants where people used perc to clean their floors because it's a degreaser. The government had accepted it and said it was absolutely fine. The perc that was used to clean floors is now a contaminant. Now, we're talking about people losing their businesses and their livelihoods because the rules have changed midstream."
Though Bob believes the Barton Bill isn't the "be-all and end-all" to the problem, it will help. "I think any way that we can limit past liabilities is good," he said.
He also believes that the industry has self-regulated itself respectably over the years, but, in the future, cleaners need to become more professional. "We need to regulate more of what we're doing and who can be a drycleaner. If you need a license to get perc, you should need a license to be a drycleaner."
Bob remains steadily fixed on the path he chose, doing his part to keep his grandfather's business running. "It's important to me that we keep the Joe Lipke name alive," he said.
In his not-so-copious spare time, however, Bob enjoys another primary aspect of his life: bonding with his wife of 22 years, Kathy, and their two daughters, Megan, 16 and Rachel, 18.
Kathy is an RN who works for herself as a lactation consultant, helping newborns and breast-feeding mothers.
Bob and Kathy manage to juggle their time and be active parents. Both were at "just about every single game" of Megan, who played volleyball and basketball in middle school and now has designs to be in the fashion industry.
Rachel goes to school in Massachusetts and visits home on holiday breaks. "Rachel has William's syndrome. It's a fairly rare syndrome that she was born with. The closest thing to it would be Down's syndrome," Bob said. Rachel hopes to be a vet's assistant someday.
Though work is demanding, Bob's attitude on family is firm, "You make as much time as you possibly can to spend with your family. It's funny though, the older they get, the less time they want to spend with you. You want to spend more time with them and they want to spend less time with you."
David Draiman, president of Sta-Brite, a drycleaning chain in the Washington, DC, area, was featured on a Jan 3. NBC Nightly News report on how Y2K problems affected businesses.
Draiman was interviewed as an example of a company that was prepared and moved through the New Year without a glitch.
"We opened up bright and early on Monday and everything was fine," he reported to the national TV audience.
The Sta-Brite staff had prepared for Y2K to assure there would be no interruption in business. All equipment, from computerized production systems to point-of-sale terminals, were state of the art Y2K compliant. The point-of-sale system was designed by Computer Systems International, a Canadian company.
The NBC report concluded that small private companies that, like Sta-Brite, took the initiative, were the reason why there were so few Y2K problems.
Sta-Brite, a 50-year-old company with nine locations, was founded by David Draiman's father, William Draiman.
The Coin Laundry Association honored industry members for service and leadership in 1999.
The Member of the Year Award was presented to Richard Burgard, president of the Golden State Coin Laundry Association. The award recognizes a CLA member who makes an outstanding contribution to the national association during the year.
The Richard H. Torp Memorial Excellence in Education Award, given in honor of CLA's former communications director, was presented to Clay Pederson, a business broker and president of the San Diego Coin Laundry Association.
CLA's Outstanding Affiliate award was presented to two groups: The New Jersey Coin Laundry Association, under the leadership of Sally Collins, and the Washington State Coin Laundry Association, under the leadership of Greg Tompkins.
Tompkins was also one of three recipients of CLA's Leadership Award. A Walla Walla, WA, store owner, Tompkins started the WSCLA, currently serves as its president and is spearheading the association's effort to repeal the sales tax on coin laundries.
Leadership Awards were also presented to Mary Peet of Sudsy Vending Supplies, Westminster, CA; and Michael Sokolowski of Chicago, IL, who was recently elected president to the Chicagoland Coin Laundry Association.
The Outstanding Director Award, presented to a CLA board member, went to Jeff Deal, president of Hamilton Engineering of Livonia, MI.
Distinguished Service Awards, which are presented CLA board members upon completion of their terms of service, went to Dave DeMarsh of BDS Laundry System of Minnesota; Ron Fey of the Maytag Co.; and George Nikolsky, a store owner from Poughkeepsie, NY.
Marshall Williford, owner of The Wash House chain headquartered in Windsor, NC, received the Chairman's Plaque which is presented each year to the current CLA Chairman of the Board.
CLA also recognized two recently deceased members with memorial awards presented to their families. Don Dewane, who died in December 1998, was with Vend-Rite Manufacturing in Chicago. Store owner Jim Gavalas, who died in May, 1999, was a regular participant at all CLA workshops and seminars.
One of the cofounders of Dryclean USA has reacquired the company after several years of ownership by the Johnson Group PLC, a British company.
William K. Steiner, who started Dryclean USA with Eric Schwartz in 1977, is back at the helm. The company he started more than 20 years ago eventually went public before it was acquired by the Johnson Group, where it continued to grow and become of the larger franchise and license operations in the drycleaning industry. Dryclean USA has franchisees and licensees in the United States, the Caribbean and Central and South America.
While Dryclean USA was growing under the Johnson Group, Steiner-Atlantic, a company that Steiner founded in 1960, was also growing as a distributor of industrial laundry, drycleaning equipment and steam boilers in the Southeastern United States, the Caribbean and South America.
Steiner also acquired a small public company, Metro-Tel, which became the parent of Steiner-Atlantic. Through Metro-Tel, Steiner has now reacquired Dryclean USA. He serves as chairman and CEO while his son, Mike, is president. Metro-Tel and Steiner-Atlantic are now subsidiaries of Dryclean USA, which also has been listed on the American Stock Exchange (AMEX: DCU).
The Steiners are in the process of an expansion program in which they aim to increase the number of franchised and licensed Dryclean USA stores and follow its logo: "Clean Across America."
Through DrycleanUSA.com the company will market laundry, drycleaning and other associate personal services to consumer through the internet. The Steiners have created a conversion plan for independent drycleaners around the United States.
Vulcan Materials Co. has combined its speciality chemicals business into one business unit with a common name -- Vulcan Performance Chemicals.
Vulcan Performance Chemicals will focus on the pulp and paper, textiles and water management markets and it will continue manufacturing basic chemicals and custom specialty chemicals. The company also will expand into markets such as petrochemical, mining and utilities.
The new unit includes Callaway Chemical Co., which Vulcan purchased in 1995, Callaway's Mayo Division, Callaway Chemicals Limited, Vulcan Chemical Technologies and Vulcan's sodium chlorite business.
"Our goal is to help our customers improve their performance, lower costs and meet critical environmental objectives," said John L. Holland, president of Vulcan Performance Chemicals.
Headquartered in Birmingham AL, Vulcan Performance Chemicals has manufacturing facilities in Georgia, Louisiana, California, Kansas, Wisconsin and Vancouver, British Columbia.
Vulcan Performance Chemicals' technical and research and development center is located in Columbus, GA.
Shipments of the new dollar coin began in January and the U.S. Mint anticipates that the "Golden Dollar" will be widely circulated by March.
The Mint is geared up to meet demand for the new coin which it projects at 100 million, more than double the current annual demand for the Susan B. Anthony dollar which has been phased out. At the height of production, coin presses can turn out 800 coins per minute.
The Mint hopes to use lessons from the past to gain public acceptance of the new Golden Dollar. The Susan B. Anthony dollar never caught on with the public, due at least in part to its similar appearance to the quarter. The new dollar coin is gold in color, has a smooth edge similar to a nickel and extra wide border. The Mint found in consumer testing that the coin is easily distinguished form other coins by touch alone.
At the same time, the Mint was faced with the problem of designing a coin that could be integrated into modern coin-operated mechanisms. A special alloy was produced that matches the electromagnetic signatures, size and weight of the old dollar coin, allowing the new coin to be used in millions of coin-operated machines that currently accept the SBA.
"On the one hand, we had to produce a coin that looked very different to consumers and would be confused with the quarter," said Philip N. Diehl. "And on the other hand, we wanted to produce a new dollar coin that works like a Susan B. Anthony in vending machines."
The obverse ("heads") side of the coin features the likeness of Sacajawea, the Shoshone woman who assisted Lewis and Clark on the journey across the North American continent. The reverse ("tails") side features a full-spanned soaring eagle and 17 stars, each star representing one of the states at the time of the Lewis and Clark expedition.
To foster acceptance of the coin, the Mint is undertaking a $36 million advertising and public relations campaign which includes nationwide television, print and radio advertising, and select retail and banking partnerships.
More information is available on the Mint's Dollar Coin website, www.usmint.gov.
Union Drycleaning Products USA has a new address, phone and fax numbers. The company's address is now 10 Southwoods Parkway, Suite 100, Hapeville, GA 30354. The phone number is (404) 361-7775 and the fax number is (404) 361-2454.
Copyright © 2000, National Clothesline Maintained by: Hal Horning