Starr Uniform Real People, Real Growth

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Sam Starr, co-owner of Starr Uniform in Scranton, Pa., explains his sales strategy this way: When I call on new customers, I dont walk in with samples. I dont sell uniforms. I sell myself. Everybody has the same suppliers products. Theres no magic recipe. I cant walk into a sheriffs office and say, Ive got all your problems solved. I say, I will be responsible for what I do for you. Heres my home phone number and my cell phone number. Im the owner and if you have an issue call me. And I instruct all my salespeople to approach the business the same way.

Starr Uniform started in 1974. Sam Starrs background was in the womens fashion industry. He worked in Manhattan on the retail side of the business as a buyer. When he moved back to his hometown of Scranton, he opened a high-fashion boutique.

I noticed the depreciation in the womens fashion industry. I would buy a garment for $100 and if I did not sell it in 6 weeks I end up selling it for $40. After 4 years, I decided that was an illogical proposition. I wanted to get into something with a non-depreciable commodity and was recession-proof.

So, Starr ventured into the uniform business. His partner in Starr Uniforms is Howard Ufberg.
There are times in the uniform business when your business is flat, there is no doubt about it. But even when it is flat, a business of this type is not as hard hit. You take a major event like Sept. 11, 2001, probably the most catastrophic event in U.S. history, yet the impact it had on the uniform industry was positive. The impact it had on every other industry was negative, says Starr.

Specifically, Starr points out that events of 9/11 proved a catalyst for an attitude change, one where law enforcement agencies simply needed new equipment or items and would just buy them. There wasnt the hesitation anymore. Where the money was to come from no one knew, but Starrs observation was that spending had been set free.

The company employs 20 people. There is an outside sales force, which funnels a great deal of traffic to the retail facilities. The company also runs monthly seminars for its customers to inform them of new product developments.

Starr Uniform currently has two retail locations. The store at 207 Center St. in Scranton, Pa, is devoted to public safety related customers. The second store, at 502 Cedar Ave., focuses on the companys successful school uniform operation. Both stores are within blocks of Interstate 81 and are centrally located in downtown Scranton.

The companys first store has had three locations since opening. Starr kept buying bigger buildings. The 207 Center St. building has been Starrs since 1989. He purchased the Cedar Avenue building in 2002.

Buying is definitely the way to go. I like to control my environment, and if you have the opportunity, you are always better off to own your own real estate.

The law enforcement and public safety store on Center Street is 13,000 square feet. There are 3 floors, plus a shooting range on the lower level. The exterior of the building is made of a contemporary dryvit finish.

The first floor is bursting with inventory. Here customers browse postal, police, fire and public safety apparel and accessories. The second floor is storage for additional inventory. The in-house alteration department is also here, with three seamstresses. There are offices in another section for customer service representatives, bookkeeping and shipping. On the third floor there is a classroom for the Pennsylvania Lethal Weapon Training Program, which also uses the indoor shooting range located in the basement. There is room on the top floor for even more inventory storage.

Starr has built a solid reputation for providing law enforcement, fire, security, paramedic and career apparel uniforms. The firm has a specialty in the custom made, tailored Class A uniforms for police and fire departments.

In recent years, the firm also has become known as a strong school uniform supplier.
The school business was driven by the Columbine school tragedy and other major catastrophes in school systems. Selling school uniforms is basically the same business we knew from public safety, just different sizes and styles. But whether you are selling a group of police officers or a group of school children, once you have the recipe down, it is the same thing.

Starr made a big commitment to its school division when it began importing its own private-label apparel for the school market.

The school uniform business is about delivery, says Starr. In a school system, you may be dealing with 3,000 or 4,000 thousand kids. Mostly people wait until the week before school to make their purchases, and you cant tell them a week before school that you are sold out. The laws in some of these districts are such that a student cant come to school without a uniform. You certainly cant say an item is on backorder.

Pennsylvania, in fact, took a very tough stance related to the adoption of school dress codes. There are test cases on the Pennsylvania state books where individuals lost lawsuits related to not wearing the uniforms.

I have learned a lot in researching this market. Peer pressure is totally knocked-out with the uniforms. Talking with bus drivers, they said poor kids would get off the bus and pretend they were going to school and then not go because they were embarrassed about their clothes or having to wear the same clothes every day. The Scranton schools have shown specific evidence that the attention spent on school matters vs. clothes has positively improved since the adoption of a school uniform program.

Starr Uniforms also now handles all embroidery itself. The in-house embroidery equipment is only a year and a half old and located at the Cedar Avenue facility. This location features 11,000 square feet. The retail space serves the school uniform business handling the apparel needs of 10,000 students in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

This store is also where the firm handles certain promotional products, such as golf shirts, t-shirts and jackets. The company outfits several trucking companies, for example, with this type of merchandise.

What does Starr see for the future?

We have made some major financial commitments over the past two years. We bought a building, purchased state-of-the-art embroidery equipment, and we are importing container loads of private-label school uniforms. It is a commodity we werent afraid to step up to the plate with because the depreciation index is almost non-existent. A basic golf shirt with a school logo on it can carry through as long as it is clean.

The investment Starr has made in the past two years was certainly a conscious one and a slap in the face to a sluggish national economic environment. Nothing was driven by real estate or equipment being on sale in a depressed economy. In fact, cites Starr, real estate is still at a premium in the Scranton area.

He says, The money made in the uniform business is done on the buying, not on the selling. It takes multi-bucks to get the pre-season orders to a point where you get the right discounts. The problem is also that the perception about margin of profit is so inflated by the end-user. Police officers are constantly thinking they can easily go into the uniform business. Generally, however, the margins are shrinking in this business. It is a very price sensitive business.

Starr also gives the reminder that the uniform industry is a service industry. Dealers and retailers all sell the same commodities, for the most part. What makes the difference, Starr says, is a dealers ability to deliver it and the ability to service the customer after product is delivered even for the school uniform business. The Wal-Marts and Penneys are not geared toward that kind of one-on-one service. Starr Uniform offers a 1950s approach as far as service.

Im 55 years old. I dont have any children in the business. My partner and I are thinking about exit strategies all the time. We have a very viable business that will be most desirable to the right buyer at the right time.

Starr Uniform
207 Center St., Scranton, PA 18503
570-344-6831

Above story first appeared in MADE TO MEASURE Magazine, Spring & Summer 2004 issue. All rights reserved. Photos appear by special permission.
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