National
Clothesline
As far as brothers go, Tom and Bob Hilker
have an even stronger bond than most. For one thing, they are
twins, which means they were close at birth... literally.
Bob may be older by two minutes, but Tom has never
resented him for it. That’s because the pair have always
been able to get along well.
In fact, they have even managed to work
side by side at the helm of Brothers Cleaners in
Raleigh, North Carolina for the past two decades, no small feat
for any family members, to be sure.
One reason for the success is that each
brother has different strengths, so they complement each other
well in their partnership.
“Tom handles more of the production
aspect,” Bob explained. “He laid out this whole
plant for us when we built it. I handle more of the
administrative stuff.”
In many aspects, the relationship of the
two isn’t much different than when they were growing up.
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Not surprisingly, both brothers often
worked together in the family business during their formative
years. When they were 12, they toiled away at a laundromat next
to the family cleaning plant — both owned by their
father.
By age 15, they had moved up to do some
front counter work, a post they held through high school and
even during college.
Bob studied sociology in college, but Tom
wryly jokes that his brother learned about something else
entirely: “fun.”
After graduating with a B.S. degree in
science in 1974, Bob worked in construction for a few years,
then sales.
Tom opted for a different route. He
earned a technical degree and worked several years as an
electrician for AAA Electric. Not long after that, however, the
two twins, who had now been separated for a while, found
themselves drawn back into the family business.
“In the late 1970s, the electrical
industry was just in a slowdown,” Tom explained.
“And, my dad said, ‘Hey, come help me out for a
couple of weeks.’ I’ve been there ever
since.”
Meanwhile, Bob began second-guessing his
own professional path, as well.
“My dad always wanted us back in
the business and he came to me,” Bob recalled. “I
was fed up with working for other people and it was the perfect
time for him to say, ‘Let’s go open another
location.’ My brother was at the one store and I opened
up a second store. It happened to be a goldmine, so we were
lucky there. Then, we opened up a third store.”
The Hilker brothers wanted to open up yet
another location, but found that shopping centers were getting
cold feet about leasing to drycleaners for fear of
environmental problems. So, instead, Tom and Bob opened up a
central plant.
“We dried up all three of those
stores and took them into one,” Bob said. “It
started out at 12,000 sq. ft. Then, we added another 10,000 sq.
ft. more in the last couple of years.”
Nowadays, Brothers Cleaners employs
between 85 and 90 people, a significant difference from the
small plant that originally opened its doors in 1916.
Over 90 years ago, Tom and Bob’s
grandfather, Emil Hilker, immigrated from Germany and started
the company with his brother, Fred. It was originally called
Hilker Brothers.
Over time, the company would brand other
names — including Pleasant Valley Cleaners, North Hills
Cleaners and North Ridge Cleaners — but it would always
be run by the Hilker family.
Emil Hilker turned the company over to
his son (Tom and Bob’s father) Jerry in the 1940s. Twelve
years later, Tom and Bob were born. Like many third generation
cleaners, they foster some early memories of growing up around
the family business.
“I remember as a small kid going
into the back of one of the plants and they would clean
something in petroleum solvent and then transfer it over to an
extract and wring it out and hang it up, or put it in a
makeshift dryer,” Bob recalled.
“We had five ladies who made
tailored clothes,” Tom added. “You would go in
there and there would be swatches of materials on the wall and
you would take whatever material you’d want and the fine
ladies would make you a suit.”
Jerry’s twin brother, Jim Hilker,
joined him at the family business in the early 1960s; that
partnership lasted about five years before Jim and Jerry
decided to go their separate ways.
The third generation of Hilker brothers,
however, hope to always remain together. After all, the
partnership has worked well, even since the early days when the
company exploded in growth under their guidance.
“Customer service is what kept us
going all of these years ,” Bob noted. “My dad
crammed customer service down our throats and we crammed it
down our employees’ throats. We are a friendly, friendly
business. We do good quality work, too — don’t get
me wrong — but customer service must be
absolute.”
Of course, there are various aspects of
customer service. It’s more than greeting customers by
names and thanking them for their business. The Hilker brothers
also strive hard to make their business as convenient as
possible.
One longtime staple of the company is a
drive-through window, a feature that has been present at every
store they’ve ever owned in the past 30 or so years. If
they had to hazard a guess, the Hilkers believe that 60%
percent of the customers who visit their plant use the
drive-through option.
“We had one of the first
drive-throughs in the state of North Carolina,” Bob
noted. “As a matter of fact, back in the late 1960s,
people used to come up to it and think we were a bank
— all the time.”
Convenience does not only mean making it
easier for customers to come to you; sometimes it means going
to them, as well. In that regard, the Hilkers excel. They offer
pickup and delivery route service using five vans which run
four days a week, taking care of over 2,500 customers
throughout the Triangle area in North Carolina.
“Pickup and delivery is the way to
go,” Bob emphasized. “Everybody is too busy for
everything so you go to their house and you pick their clothes
up. If they’re not home, you’re able to put them on
a charge account. They get spoiled and then you are able to
retain them easier. ”
Retaining customers is important, but as
the Hilker twins know, getting customers in the first place is
paramount. To accomplish that, Bob and Tom have worked hard to
offer a wide variety of services.
“Everybody has to find another
niche,” Bob said. “The drycleaning business is very
competitive now so every little way to diversify has been
helpful.”
Brothers Cleaners has distinguished
itself by specializing in wedding gowns, alterations,
preservation and restoration. In addition to earning the
Certified Environmental Drycleaner mark, the company also
belongs to the Certified Restoration Drycleaning Network, the
International Fabricare Institute and is a certified Sanitone
Master Dry Cleaners.
Such affiliations serve well to mark the
company’s present accomplishments, but Tom and Bob are
just as concerned about its future. In fact, Brothers Cleaners
invested $400,000 last year in new technology to ensure that
they will be state of the art for a long time to come.
“We just put in a MetalProgetti,
got all new drycleaning equipment, automatic baggers and the
latest pants presses and shirt presses,” Bob said.
The brothers hope the new purchases will
help cut down on some of their labor costs, as well as the
number of customer claims.
“Right now, it’s going
great,” Bob added. “It’s more accurate than
human error. It does a better job — in particular the
pants pressers. You are able to do it a bit faster and they put
out a beautiful pair of pants. The automatic bagger saves labor
and cuts your poly costs. Everything has its
benefit.”
Another advantage of the new equipment is
that there should be a lot fewer garment mixups thanks to the
MetalProgetti assembly machine.
“Once the stuff is bagged in the
front, it goes back and gets drycleaned, then it goes through
the pressing station and then the assembly area,” Bob
explained. “You are able to scan the bar code on it and
put it on the assembly. Then, when, say, a sweater, sportscoat
and dress from the same order come up, it puts them all
together under one name and it’s able to go to the
automatic bagger. It’s amazing.”
Now that their company is at the
forefront of industry technology, both Tom and Bob will remain
perfectly content if few other cleaners join them.
“I hope they all don’t do
it,” Bob said. “I hope we’re the only ones
who are doing it. Anybody who stays up with technology and also
stays up with quality and takes care of their customers is
going to stand out.”
With that attitude, the Hilker brothers
may yet see their business hit the century mark. They will
certainly enjoy the ride.
“Drycleaning has been good to our
family,” Bob said. “It’s a lot of hard work,
but we’ve been able to live great lifestyles and take
care of our families.”
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