s president of Swannanoa Cleaners in
North Carolina, Bretney Smith realizes that the road to
tradition is a long one that requires patience and commitment.
Over 100 years have passed since Swannanoa first opened it
doors. In that time, four generations of the family have all
made significant contributions to preserve the business’s
deep and rich history.
It all began with Bretney’s
grandfather, Canie Brown, who sold hats throughout Tennessee,
Virginia and Kentucky before he decided he wanted to travel
less and settle down. When contemplating what to do next, he
turned to a church — a bankrupt First Christian church,
in fact. The three-story building, which had been built in
Asheville, NC, in 1885 and housed 42,000 square feet, was the
perfect facility to start a laundry in 1900. Brown and several
other men invested in the plant, which started with six
employees.
“He had a horse and
wagon,” Bretney said. “There weren’t any cars
then. That’s the way he started picking up and delivering
the clothes.”
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“After that, Nichols left to
go west to go looking for gold,” Smith explained.
“I don’t think he found any. When he got back, my
grandfather bought out his interest and owned the laundry by
himself.”
While Brown worked on growing
Swannanoa, his son-in-law (and Bretney’s father), Edwin
Bretney Smith, was busy carrying on an entirely different
family tradition.
“My father was in the
wholesale drug business,” Bretney recalled. “That
was my other grandpa’s business — Frank Smith and
his brother, Dr. T.C. Smith. They successfully supplied all the
drug stores.”
Though Bretney’s father had
grown up in the wholesale drug business and had no intentions
of changing trades, the Great Depression changed all of that in
1930.
“Canie Brown was on a bank
board and the bank had gone belly up like all the other
banks,” he said. “As a director, he was afraid of
what might happen to him because, back in those days, there was
no FDIC. Directors were personally responsible for any losses
at the bank.”
As it turned out, the vice president
of the bank committed suicide and the president was sent to
prison for two years.
“There my grandfather was in
limbo,” Bretney said. “If he were to be prosecuted,
who was going to own the laundry? So, he asked my father to
leave the drug company and simply walk across the street, come
up the back stairs into the laundry and learn the business
— in case he had to go to prison.”
ortunately, Canie Brown never had to serve time,
but that didn’t deter Bretney’s father from making
good on the promise he made to him. Edwin Bretney Smith was the
type of man who liked to honor his commitments for life.
By the time Bretney turned 14 and
started working at the family business, it had expanded to
include 185 employees with three separate washrooms on two of
the levels. He spent much of his time on the building’s
main floor at the drycleaning plant.
“Everybody had a job and you
did your job,” he said. “You didn’t do
anybody else’s job. If you pressed pants, that’s
what you did all day long. There was no cross-training at
all.”
Outside of work, Bretney showed a
lot of interest in cross-training. When he attended Darlington
High School in Georgia from 1945 to 1948, he played a variety
of sports: golf, tennis, football and basketball. After that,
he enrolled in the University of North Carolina where he
graduated in 1952 with a degree in English literature.
Following a stint as a Lieutenant JG
on a destroyer during the Korean War, he returned to college
and earned a degree in forestry from North Carolina State in
1956.
With two generations of the family already
managing Swannanoa, Bretney felt it was prudent to pursue
another professional path. He started a job as a salesman for
the U.S. Plywood Corporation out of Birmingham, AL.
“I traveled South Alabama,
calling all the lumberyards and cabin shops,” he
recalled. “I liked it very much. At that time, I met my
wife and got married. We lived in the same apartment building.
She lived on one end of the hall and I lived on the other. I
saw her get off the elevator one day. I thought, ‘By
golly — a blue-eyed blonde from Alabama. That’s the
gal for me!’”
Coleman and Bretney have been
married for over 40 years and have two children: daughter Stacy
and son Bretney, Jr.
Bretney was content with his new
family and his job at U.S. Plywood, but his life changed
drastically in 1963 when his father called him with some bad
news.
“My grandfather died in 1963.
He lived to be 89 years old,” Bretney said. “He was
frail and feeble at the end. He had a nurse. She’d drive
him to the office and she’d sit in the office with him
— all day, every day. His primary love was that laundry.
He started it from scratch and he knew where every nut and bolt
were in that place.”
After Bretney and his family moved
back to Asheville, he spent the next five years brushing up on
his drycleaning knowledge and helping his father with
Swannanoa. His first responsibilities were to oversee the
development of new package plants that would replace the
company’s need for delivery routes.
s with past family tradition, Bretney’s
commitment wasn’t an idle promise; he was dedicated to
the company for the long haul. When his father passed away in
1977, Bretney succeeded him as president. Nowadays, Swannanoa
operates eight plants with over 50 employees, boasting the
largest number of Certified Environmental Drycleaners in the
state.
The company decided to move from its
main location — the three-story church — in 2001
when the Central Methodist Church across the street wanted to
use the property as a family life center.
Though no longer in the same
building where they spent over 100 years in business, Swannanoa
hasn’t lost its sense of tradition. The business
philosophy is still the same.
“I think our real secret is we
concentrate very hard on getting spots out,” Bretney
explained. “If you can’t do that, then you
shouldn’t be in the business. We really zero in on it. Of
course, the next step is good solvent and good cleaning and
finishing. We just don’t scramble to try and cut any
corners.”
Due to such meticulous practices,
Swannanoa has developed a widespread reputation that has
attracted some expensive garments and celebrity clientele.
“We cleaned Elvis
Presley’s clothes when he was here for a concert. He used
us exclusively while he was here,” Bretney recalled.
“It was all rhinestones and bangles and beads —
really shiny, shimmy stuff. That made us nervous. We had to do
it all by hand.”
Of course, not even the King himself
could match the anxiety of when actress Andie McDowell (a
regular customer) sent in her wedding dress a little over a
year ago.
“She wanted to have it pressed
before she had her pictures taken in it,” Bretney said.
“It was a $20,000 designer dress. It took about four
people and an hour to do because it was so big.”
When the dress was returned to
McDowell, disaster struck. “We took it back to her house.
We also had some of her children’s clothes that we
cleaned. We carried them in. The dress was still laid out in
the back of the truck. Her cat, who had been out in the yard,
jumped in the truck and got muddy paw prints all over the
dress.”
Fortunately, the dress was taken
back to the plant where it was cleaned and pressed, then
returned without further incident.
Community has always played a major role
in each generation of Bretney’s family, and he is no
different. He is proud of his ties with several local and
national associations. He is a member of the board of trustees
for the Central United Methodist Church and has been a member
of the Foundation Board of Hospice, the Asheville Rotary Club
and many others. In the industry, he is known as a past
president and board member for the North Carolina Association
of Launderers & Cleaners and was a member of the Varsity
International Conference of Cleaners for four years.
He certainly isn’t making it
easy for the next generation to fill his shoes; however,
Swannanoa’s vice presidents — Marvin Thomas and
Bretney’s daughter Stacy aim to carry on the tradition.
Thomas is well-versed in the art of
running a family business himself, having managed his
family’s operation — Georgetown Laundry in
Georgetown, SC — from 1981 to 1994. He is also a vice
president for NCALC.
Like her father, Stacy began working
at Swannanoa Cleaners at the age of 14. Since then, she
graduated from Converse College in Spartanburg, SC, with a
degree in Economics.
“We’ve always gotten
along very well in the work environment,” Stacy said.
“He’s been extremely helpful and has really guided
me through the years in the business.”
Of course, Bretney isn’t
finished with his training just yet. If he lives to be 89 years
old like his grandfather, chances are he’ll still be
coming to work every day.
“Whether or not he’ll
actually retire is questionable,” Stacy said.
“Quite frankly, that isn’t a bad thing. I think
Marvin and I are still continuing to learn from him.”
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