Embroidery House sees 61 percent volume growth

Helping businesses with their corporate apparel is nothing new to Nixa-based Embroidery House, but a new piece of machinery is increasing efficiency and allowing the company to pick up its pace.

Company owner Mark Andrew Shea said Embroidery House's piece volume has increased about 61 percent year-to-date compared to the same period in 2002. As of Sept. 19, Embroidery House had completed 46,263 pieces, and as of the same date in 2002 the company had completed 28,659 pieces.

The company, at 1110 Gerald St. in Nixa, provides branded merchandise to a nationwide client base.

The bulk of the company's work is in "corporate identification," Shea said, for wholesale and retail clients. While Shea opted not to name any of Embroidery House's wholesale clients who purchase the embroidered goods and sell them he said Embroidery House's retail clients include O'Reilly Automotive, French's, Southwest Missouri State University, Village Bank and Tyson Foods.

"We literally ship apparel nationwide and worldwide from Nixa, Missouri," Shea said.

Record-breaking week

During the week beginning Sept. 8, the company had a record-breaking week and completed more than 1,800 pieces.

That increase is due in part to Embroidery House's recent addition of a 2003 Barudan four-head embroidery machine, which represents an investment of more than $40,000.

The machine, known in the industry as "The Spectacle," increases efficiency by eliminating downtime for garments that are to have two separate designs embroidered on them. Shea said that before a garment is decorated, it is secured by a process known as hooping.

With the new machine "we actually hoop a garment so that the garment is nice and taut while we actually decorate it," Shea said. "In the spectacle process, we can hoop a left chest, and we can hoop a sleeve, for instance, and load both designs into the computer. It can actually embroider the left chest, and then without skipping a beat it jogs over and can embroider the right sleeve. So it doesn't actually do it simultaneously, (but) it actually increases production because there's less operator down-time."

The machine also enables the company to sew on bucket caps, which are popular right now, Shea said, and it can also sew on pockets without sewing the pocket shut. With the new machine, the company now has 33 sewing heads.

Other factors for the company's increasing garment volumes are service and quality, Shea said.

"Not all embroidery is created equal. What we strive for here is the wow factor. When our customer opens up the box, whether it's a retail customer or a wholesale customer, we want them to say, Wow, that looks beautiful,'" Shea said.

However, he also notes that there's "no question" that the demand for corporate apparel is on the rise.

"I remember years ago, walking through an airport in a major city, and the lion's share of the businesspeople were dressed in suits and ties," Shea said. "Now you walk through an airport, and generally it's a pair of khaki slacks and an embroidered shirt, and that's the corporate uniform of choice."

Shea also believes that corporate identification is a concept that's here to stay, particularly in company clothing.

"I feel like if employees are given a choice to wear business attire or business casual, which would include an embroidered piece of apparel, they would by and large choose business casual over the more traditional business suit attire," he said. "It's just more comfortable and in the long run, less expensive for the employee."

Company vision

As for future growth, Shea said Embroidery House which, with its sister company, Marketing Partners Inc. has a combined total of 10 employees is appropriately staffed at this time. A new machine operator joined the company earlier this year, and Shea doesn't see any staff additions in the near future.

"Here at this company, we're a multitasking company. Our employees are asked to wear different hats," he said.

Shea said Marketing Partners Inc. is a marketing services company that warehouses and fulfills promotional programs, writes rebate checks and handles business group travel.

One example of an employee with several different hats is Tom Tungseth, who is warehouse manager for Marketing Partners. Tungseth also is a factory-trained technician who can repair Embroidery House's machines and keep them running, and his repair skills also lend themselves to the company's bottom line.

"We also sell that repair service to our competitors in the area, and when things are really hectic, he pitches in and helps sew garments as well," Shea said.