William Toy still recalls that the day he opened up his drycleaning plant for business back in 1950 was Nov. 7 -- an election day.
Fifty years have passed and many elections have come and gone (some slower than others), but Spic-N-Span Cleaners can still be found at the same location at 510 11th St., nestled in the heart of the small, neighboring communities of Ford City and Kittanning, PA.
William, who was born in Kittanning in 1929, had first learned about the drycleaning industry back in the early 1940s.
"My first association with drycleaning was when I was about twelve or thirteen years old," he recalled. "I worked as a sweep-up boy in a plant as I was going to high school. I sort of formed an opinion when I was in high school that I was going to pursue this as a career. It seemed to me like it was going to be a very lucrative way to make a living at the time."
After graduating, William managed to enroll in the National Institute of Drycleaning (now the International Fabricare Institute). If William had not met some influential drycleaners while working his high school job, he would have been on a waiting list for a couple of years.
Instead, he took the three-month course immediately. "That was great and very informative," he said. "I graduated from NID in 1948. I got out of that and, in March of 1950, began building my own plant. I met a lovely girl, who is now my wife (Dorothy), and her father helped me finance it to get it going."
At the time, drycleaning in the Ford City/Kittanning area was exceptionally competitive. "I think between stores and tailors and truck routes, there were 18 outlets," he said. "Do you know how many there are today? Just me and one other competitor. That's the difference -- that's how drycleaning has gone through the years."
Weathering the fierce storm of competition for five decades takes hard work and good business planning, as William would attest. When asked what a typical day is for him, William responded: "I'm ashamed to tell you. I get up at three o'clock in the morning, get in here at four o'clock, and I get out of here at six o'clock in the evening. That's a long day."
William also realizes that success cannot stem from hard work alone. Over the years he has had to rely on good business strategies.
"To be real honest, after I was in business here for about five years, I reached a plateau which I couldn't get above," he said. Fortunately, some business acquaintances decided to introduce William to an advertising manager.
"He taught me a lot of things I did not know about, like customer control -- if we lost a customer, we followed up to find out why -- and greeting a new customer when they first come to town." It wasn't long before William's advertising program began to set him apart from other cleaners.
"The advertising made us look like we were a step above our competition. One by one they dropped off and we kept going. We just kept growing and growing and growing," he added.
Spic-N-Span Cleaners also went through a major renovation at that time, which William also attributes to the plant's success. However, that would only be enough to keep the business going strong until the 1970s, when William realized that the plant needed an economic boost again.
He had heard of how other plants had diversified and succeeded, so William followed suit and started dealing custom draperies in 1970.
"Of course, selling custom draperies isn't like making 15 cents on a pair of pants you cleaned professionally. This was a different ballgame,"
he explained. "That supplemented our income and tied us in to a new business. First of all, in selling the new draperies, we knew what to sell to people that was serviceable. Number two, when it came time to service it, we automatically got that business since we sold it as new. It worked out super well for me."
About twenty years ago, William discovered another way to expand his business with a second diversification. "We were approached by people who rented fancy linens for parties, social affairs, what have you -- that was in Pittsburgh, which is 45 miles from us," he said. "We had two 100-lb units. A lot of it we drycleaned to get the oil out and then laundered it at a low temperature so it retained its new look."
When William was building the plant in 1950, he had deliberated for a long time on what type of solvent he would use. As it turned out, choosing petroleum was helpful for processing bigger loads of linens at a time. Spic-N-Span now receives a considerable amount of linen work. "Our truck goes every day to Pittsburgh first thing in the morning," he said.
About a decade after William had started working with fancy linens, he saw one more economic opportunity, so he started another side business. This time, however, William started something that he had never encountered anywhere else.
"We also got into a business called SailCare. We renovate sails," he said. William had firsthand experience of the need for such a service. Not only has he been a sailor for the last 25 years, but he also keeps a sailing yacht in Annapolis, MD.
"I had seen a few sails washed -- there are places in the country that wash sails, but nobody in the USA does what we do," he noted. "We re-resinate them and make them near-to-new. Plus, we do all of the repairs. We have five sewers. Eighty-five percent of what we get needs repair work on it. They want modifications done on the sail or it has blown out or needs repair work. When they get to that point, they have to have help."
The demand for sail reconditioning remains steady for William, who had to struggle with the business in the beginning. "One of the things about this business is that during the first five years you're in it, every year you're hunting new customers because people don't clean sails every year," he pointed out. "They probably clean them once every five years. The first few years you don't get that."
The process SailCare utilizes is known as the LaMauney Process. First the sails are inspected carefully and checked for sun deterioration and the strength of the sewn seams. Then, after authorized repairs are made, they are cleaned and the cloth is impregnated with resins through a controlled heating process.
Finally, several chemical agents are added to the sail to provide water repellency and ultraviolet protection, inhibit the growth of mildew, and greatly prolong its overall life span. In all, the process only costs approximately 10% of the price range for a new sail.
"We've cleaned a lot of sails," William said. "On a charter boat down in Hawaii, believe it or not, they sent sails in to us that were absolutely tremendous. In fact, to process them, we had to split them into three pieces -- actually take them apart -- process them and put them back together because it was far too big for our equipment."
What began as an adjunct business venture has become a full-fledged company. However, according to William, it was imperative for his survival in business. "It's a lot to have going, particularly in a small community," he said, "but I just think that the day of the mom-and-pop operation is not going anywhere if you haven't progressed."
William's determination to succeed has kept him unbelievably busy. In addition to employing over 30 people with all of his businesses, he has still found time to stay active in two industries: he is a member of the Pennsylvania and Delaware Cleaners Association and he participates in about ten sailboat shows every year, visiting cities such as Chicago, San Diego, Atlantic City, Miami and Hartford.
Though he is over 70 years old, he doesn't see any reason to slow down. "I don't even think about retirement," he said. "You build a monster like this, it's not easy to dispose of. Also, I am sort of enjoying where I am right now. I've been into banking here for the last ten years on the board of directors and the executive's committee for People's Financial Corporation. It's been something different. I've learned a lot about financing and it's very interesting."
Looking back at a lifetime of hard work, William sums up his feelings about the drycleaning industry briefly: "I guess I must like what I have done because I'm still with it."
However, he believes that the industry is only for people who are devoted to it. "Perhaps I have overdone it," he said, "but I think if somebody only wants to work eight hours a day, five days a week, they better not think about drycleaning."
William also believes that the industry has changed considerably over the years. "This is the first year since I have been in the drycleaning business that we haven't had a gain in sales. We have a decrease," he pointed out.
In fact, William is often presented with more evidence of how the demand for drycleaning has fallen. His nephew works at a Service Master franchise (which he helped set him up with a few years ago) that performs fire restoration work. Whenever a home has had a fire and all of the occupant's garments are brought in to be worked on, a trend is noticeable: almost all of the clothing is washable.
"Going back fifty years ago, every home was a drycleaning customer -- maybe not big time -- but sooner or later, they all had to find a drycleaner. That's not so today."
James Mayberry has resigned his position as administrative director of the Fabricare Legislative and Regulatory Education group (FLARE), an organization founded several years ago to coordinate industry efforts on environmental and legislative issues. Mayberry said his other business commitments no longer allow him time to dedicate to FLARE.
"These grass roots efforts have helped to foster unity in our often-fragmented industry," Mayberry said. "I stand firm in my belief that the industry will grow stronger and be able to meet its challenges through unified grass roots action."
FLARE-related concerns can be directed to Ross Beard, (630) 416-4244, or Brooksher Banks (501) 771-7412.
Roger Sattler, former national sales manager for the Bemis Co., has joined Pepin Manufacturing Inc. (PMI) as national marketing manager.
Sattler was awaiting the expiration of a three-year non-compete agreement signed when the Helmac Co. purchased rights to the Bemis line of lint rollers. He joins Paul Lusic, PMI's sales manager, to help lead the sales team.
PMI manufactures Lint Busters lint rollers for the drycleaning industry, has been producing lint rollers for more than five years, and is a prior manufacturer of the Bemis Lint roller.
Tony Dudzik has been named vice president of corporate services for Swan Cleaners of Columbus, OH.
Dudzik has been with Swan since 1988, serving as director of marketing. In addition to overseeing the marketing and purchasing departments he will also administer the corporate office functions.
Dudzik is a 1985 graduate of Youngstown State University with a bachelor of science business administration degree, majoring in marketing, advertising and public relations. He and his wife, attorney Jeannette M. Welsh, reside in Worthington, OH.
The announcement was made by Paul Gelpi, president of Swan, which was founded in 1937 by his parents, Eleanor and Andre Gelpi. The company owns and operates 50 drycleaning stores in the greater Columbus area.
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