Jim Ronk was a soldier, professionally, with the Navy for several years. He wore the uniform well. Ronk has walked into burning buildings, professionally. He was a firefighter for 21 years with the Huntington Fire Department in West Virginia. He only gave up the uniform when they forced him to retire after being seriously injured on the job. And Ronk has been a pilot on dozens of aircraft types, professionally. He had both his charter and instructor’s liscenses and flew every single day he wasn’t fighting fires.
But if you ask Ronk about his passion today, he skips over his military service, the blazing heroics and his career as an aviator. He’s eager, and down-right excited, to talk about uniforms.
It should be mentioned, Ronk also started Ronk’s Uniform Center. And July 7, 2004, marked the 29th year for the company, which currently has three locations in the West Virginia area.
“I love the work,” says Ronk. “When a customer comes in and talks about what they want, when I can be creative and help them and guide them into what they want… it’s just like having a baby. I feel so proud. I love seeing a great looking image.”
This is not hype presented for the reader’s benefit. Ronk’s sincerity for the business is acutely important to him. His customers come first and foremost, no exceptions.
“It’s never been about the money. That’s not the issue for me. I don’t make a sale for the money. It’s my personality that I care about every one of my customers. This type of business just gets into your blood and becomes your life. At least that has been true for me.”
Ronk knows the business well but is quick to point out that he started knowing absolutely nothing.
Throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s, Ronk flew airplanes every day he was off from the fire department. It went along like that until 1974 when he bought a small carpet rental and shampoo business. That lasted about a year.
“One day I was sitting at the table with my sister discussing different business opportunities. I really wanted a business that did not require me being there every single day, actively taking part in it. And she just mentioned ‘uniforms.’ That clicked. I said ‘I’m going to open a uniform store.’ I sold the carpet business and ended up with $10,000 profit,” he says.
This seed money was the beginning of Ronk’s Uniform Center, but it took another year to get going. Remember, Ronk himself was still with the fire department and flying planes.
“I wanted to open the store, but I didn’t have anyone available to run it.”
Ronk was temporarily transferred from the Hunington Fire Dept. over to the Huntington Police Dept. to learn arson investigation procedures. On the last day at the police department, he saw an empty building in downtown Huntington.
“That was June 6 , 1975. I stood there with my nose against the glass looking in and I said ‘This is exactly what I want.’ I went home that evening and, at 6 p.m. called my friend Sharon Hinkle. I said, ‘I found a building downtown. I’m going to open a uniform store. Would you like a job managing it?’ And she said ‘yes’ and I said ‘okay, you’re hired.’”
One month later, in just 30 days on July 7, Ronk’s Uniform Center opened for business. The location, it turned out, was a block and a half from 2 existing uniform stores.
“There were these two stores and I went right dead between them,” says Ronk. “But on that day we opened for business, I had more inventory in my store than both of those stores combined. And we were larger in size. Back then, the perception was that the uniform business was a little, back-room type of operation—the overgrown tailor shop, if you will. And I never did look at it that way. My idea was a nice, big department store atmosphere. The store was about 3,500 square feet, and I filled it with everything I could. Fortunately, I had that down payment, a little equity in my house and a good banker.”
Ronk’s Uniform Center stayed at that location for about five years, but it was growing quickly. The store had opened with just white goods — medical and food service. Hinkle, the manager who is still with Ronk’s today, had nine years experience at another uniform store selling white goods.
Ronk recalls those early years as laborious but fun. “I was working 10 24-hour shifts per month at the fire department. This left me with 20 days off per month, and I worked at the store every one of them. I would put in 12- to 14-hour days. It was not all fun. I believe because of all the hard work I put in, the store just became part of me. A lot of it I did because I had a tiger by the tail, but more I did because I just loved it.”
Ronk had three daughters and admits the time commitment made family life more difficult. He took the alterations home in the evenings, arriving at 8 or 9 at night having been at the store since 6 a.m., had a bite to eat with his wife, kissed the kids goodnight and started making namepins.
“I’d do that until midnight. Our bedroom was set up as an alterations department. My wife would do the alterations for the next day.”
In 1981, there was a lot of urban renewal in Huntington, W.Va. Developers tried to build a large mall downtown, but city planners said no. So they went 15 miles down the road and built the Huntington Mall. Ronk’s Uniform Center was one of the first tenets there, opening a second smaller location for the growing business.
“Unfortunately, after 10 years, I can’t really say I put any money in my pocket from that store, but the manufacturers loved me. So, eventually, we got out of the mall.”
In 1985, while on duty with the fire department, Ronk was injured. Ironically, the burning building where the incident occurred housed a uniform service company. He was on top of the ladder, about 20 feet in the air, and the ladder gave way. Ronk broke his right leg in half and broke his knee and ankle. He took over a year off to recuperate, and five doctors said he would never perform a manual job again.
“They said I had to retire after 21 years on the fire department. But, at the same time, I was needed at my business because we had five stores by then. Well, I think the good Lord was trying to get my attention. I was injured the day after Christmas, 1985, and it took me over a year and a half to recuperate. I retired from the department in late 1987. But I was also trying to run these five stores and it was tearing me up.”
Ronk also made another important decision for himself and his work life. “I decided that if I could not manage the business on a normal 40-hour work week – no weekends – then I would get out the business. So, since that time, I rarely work a Saturday and never work on Sundays. I still love the business, but I’m determined to also enjoy my family and my grandchildren. And after 18 years off, I have taken up golf again.”
Ronk’s Uniform Center services Eastern Kentucky, Southern Ohio and West Virginia out of the Huntington, W.Va. store. The sales people travel at most a 150-mile radius. West Virginia is small, and Ronk is quick to say they do not have numbers there – quantities of people or businesses. As a result, the operation had to become diversified.
Ronk’s Uniform Center is an excellent example of how a city of 50,000 people can support of uniform store though. How do they do it? Ronk explains that more than anything else – more than the price, the inventory, the service – he wants a customer to leave knowing that Ronk’s really does care.
“It is hard to instill that in employees. No one loves this business as much as I do, except possibly Sharon. She is still with me, the first person I hired and now my general manager. She has been my right arm and half of my left throughout all these years. She treats the business as if it was hers. And you just can’t find special people like that everywhere. I was very fortunate.”
Currently, Ronk’s Uniform Center has three locations. One is in Charleston, W.Va., the state capitol. Another is located in Ashland, Ky. And the main store is still based in Huntington, W.Va. There are just two to three employees at the Charleston and Ashland stores. All alterations are performed in Huntington. The Huntington location is 9,000 square feet. Each of the other two occupy 3,500 square feet.
Ronk’s offers a full line of uniforms across many industry segments – career apparel, school, hospitality, medical, public safety, security, fire, EMS, industrial and transit. “Our population in this part of the country has been declining over the years, so we’ve had to become a very diverse supplier. What is interesting about the uniform market is it used to be limited to segments of the population,” Ronk says. “Now I look at it that I can sell to everyone in the household—whether it’s a golf shirt with embroidery, a dress shirt to go to church in or corporate casual attire. We can take care of it all. We are busting with inventory. We have all these categories of merchandise in the stores. We really do get a ‘wow’ when people walk into our Huntington store for the first time. ‘I’d didn’t know you carried all this’ they say.”
In order to keep track of everything, Ronk’s Uniform Center purchased Merchant Technologies System in 1992. Ronk was one of the early uniform users of this system, recognizing the advantages computerization offered.
“I saw the benefit history, inventory control and sales records would have for our customers. It has been a very expensive ordeal but, in my opinion, necessary. There’s little information we can’t provide our customers now via computer. We enter all the specifications and combine that with a history of everything that they’ve used.”
Ronk also points out the value he gets from organizations like the National Association of Uniform Manufacturers and Distributors (NAUMD), where he networks with other uniform businesses.
“I learned the business the hard way. I didn’t have any knowledge whatsoever. Sharon had the basic white goods experience. I had to figure it all out for myself by trial and error. Believe me, that is not the best way. It is very expensive. I did not have anyone to talk to for the blue goods side of the business, which now represents 60% of our sales. White goods is 35%. So, not only is my business independent [from any large corporate ownership], but I’ve had to become independent in figuring things out. Many other people go to work for other companies in the industry first and learn the business before going out on their own. That’s a big advantage. I do not recommend to other people doing it the way I did.”
Ronk’s Uniform Center has two outside sales representatives — one for blue goods and one for white goods. These employees are able to provide service to those groups and organizations that can’t make it to the stores.
“I don’t really have a vision to sell $100 million a year,” says Ronk. “I want to remain local and service my customers. I’ve had five stores. One was 100 miles away, where I spent three years and lost $50,000 dollars. That was in Beckley, W.Va. and I still do not understand why it didn’t work. I’ve had to learn to deal with the economy by diversifying and getting the most out of what we can do. This does not mean hard selling. That means providing service. If there is something I can do for the customer that is not immoral or illegal, I will do everything I can to provide it, stock it and sell it. I want to provide items that are needed and wanted though. I’m not interested in the sale just for the sale.”
Ronk says he just wants to earn a good living and stay close to home. He wants to provide a good living for all the employees that work for him, but he doesn’t want to get so big as to lose sight of providing the highest level of customer service.
So, Ronk continues to serve, just as he learned in the Navy. He still loves to soar, just maybe not at the heights or speeds he flew in earlier times. And now, the fires Jim Ronk puts out are those daily retailer headaches common to the industry he has come to celebrate as his passion – uniforms.
Ronk’s Uniform Center
803 Seventh Ave.
Huntington, WV 25701
304-525-1783
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