National
Clothesline
When Heath Bolin moved to Tucson, AZ,
about eight years ago to serve as president for Sparkle Cleaners, the
plan was simple. He was supposed to gradually purchase small
percentages of the company over a five-year span.
Sparkle had first opened its doors in
1961 and had long been a leader in the local market. It had 12
locations and four operating plants, but after an outside
investor purchased it the previous year, the company had begun
spiraling downward. Somebody with drycleaning experience was
needed, even if that person was under 30
years old.
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Once Heath took over the reins, he
realized it would be a long, arduous process to turn the
company around. He had accomplished a few steps in the right
direction during his first eight months, but Sparkle had quite
a way to go before it could get back its luster.
Then, a kink in the plan surfaced. The
owner of the company surprised Heath by offering him a chance
to purchase Sparkle outright immediately. Of course, the
venture would be very risky for both parties. In fact, some
might call it foolhardy. Heath realized that, but he relished
the challenge.
“I literally had no money, no
assets, just myself and my experience in drycleaning,” he
recalled. “Some people I really respect in this industry
told me that nine times out of ten this thing is not going to
work, just because the debt service was so high. But, I did it.
I took it all on myself with no backing, no safety net. I just
jumped in.”
It would have been hard for Heath to
imagine jumping into such a situation when he was born and
raised in Lake Charles, Louisiana. None of his family had any
drycleaning affiliation. In fact, his family had struggled
through its share of “tough times” so Heath never
had any cause to step foot in a cleaning plant before.
During his college years, he attended
McNeese State University and majored in criminal justice. At
that time, he also met his wife, Kristi. His own goals abruptly
changed in his junior year when he found out he’d soon be
a father.
“I thought I wanted to work for ATF
or the FBI,” he recalled. “Then I had my daughter
and I realized I didn’t want to be a cop.”
Instead, the couple moved to Houston, TX,
where Kristi enrolled in pharmacy school while Heath tried to
find a job. That’s when he met Bob and Harry Craig of
Craig’s Cleaners.
“I just went for an interview and
Harry Craig offered me $7 an hour when I was 23 years old, and
I took it,” he said. “He hired me as a training
manager, basically, a counter person. They let me work as much
as I wanted so I was working about 60 hours a week in order to
make enough money to live.”
Back in college, Heath had developed
strong people skills while bartending in his spare time. At
Craig’s, he took those skills to the next level.
“I had no idea what true customer
service was,” he said. “When I bartended in
college, the business came to me and it was going to come no
matter what. Once I started working for the Craigs, I realized
how important customer service was. They stressed it over and
over. They kind of drilled it in my head that nothing else
matters.”
After six months, Heath was promoted to
manage a small package plant. As his understanding of business
and the industry grew, so did his duties. A year later, he was
in charge of a larger plant that had four substations. He was
quite young, but more than ready for the challenge.
“I learned that I could handle a
lot of responsibility,” he noted. “I didn’t
know that I could and I don’t think the Craigs knew that
I could.”
Fortunately, the two brothers were more
like family to Heath than bosses. He credits much of his
drycleaning experience and education to them.
“We worked on a lot of different
incentive programs at the company, so I learned the value of
those,” he explained. “It was a huge motivation
factor for me. I knew if I did a great job for those guys,
they’d take care of me and my family.”
Heath had five years under his belt at
Craig’s when he started feeling homesick for his family
in Lake Charles. He left the company on good terms and started
working as the general manager for Munro’s Cleaners in
Beaumont, TX, which was much closer to his hometown.
Plant owner Bill Munro was another strong
influence in Heath’s life.
“Bob and Harry Craig had taught me
all the basics of the drycleaning business, then Bill really
taught me the business of drycleaning,” he said.
“From Bill, I took over marketing, rents and leases
— really the business behind the scenes.”
Heath was content with his job, but he
still wanted to own his own plant some day. Luckily, he
didn’t have to wait long. One year after working at
Munro’s, an opportunity popped up in Tucson. Of course,
some might surmise that it wasn’t exactly a good
opportunity.
If Sparkle was going to get back on its
feet, Heath would have to apply everything he learned from his
previous employers.
“The first year I was here was just
the worst year of my life,” he said. “It was such a
mess. Our labor was so out of control. There was no scheduling.
People just showed up when they wanted. Our service standards
were terrible. Everything had a three-day
turnaround.”
It was a lot for a brand new owner to
contend with. Adding to the pressure, Heath also arranged a
meeting with the company’s celebrity endorser for the
previous few years: Lute Olson, the head coach of the
University of Arizona’s men’s basketball team.
On a national scale, Olson is famous for
coaching the hoops team to an impressive 22 consecutive NCAA
Tournament bids; they won the championship in 1997 and have
earned four Final Four appearances.
On a local level, he is one of
Tucson’s most beloved and revered citizens. In short,
he’s a legend. Naturally, Heath wanted to make sure that
Sparkle remained in the good graces of the Wildcats’
coach.
“I’ve got this in the back of
my mind — because he is such a powerful figure in Tucson
and such a great person — we want to make him proud to
have Sparkle as his cleaners of choice. That’s really
kind of our mindset.”
So far, the relationship has been
beneficial to both sides. Olson always looks sharp on the
sidelines, and Sparkle can offer a few special gifts to its
best customers.
“Any customer who signs up for a
VIP Plus account, which is our automatic billing, gets a free
Arizona Wildcat bag,” Heath noted. “This time of
year, we give away Lute Olson Christmas ornaments.
They’ve got his autograph on them.”
Over time, Heath has implemented some
wide-sweeping changes which have resulted in Sparkle’s
image becoming more sparkling clean once again.
“We really started gobbling up
market share and controlling labor,” he said. “We
went to same day, every day service, including Saturday —
at every location. We went from four operating plants to just
one in three years. We’ve now got a fully automated
MetalProgetti system that feeds the automatic bagger. We
completely turned the thing around.”
Heath also set in motion several
incentive programs, knowing full well the kind of impact they
would have on both quality and quantity.
“There’s not one person in my
company who doesn’t have an incentive program,” he
said. “Everyone has bonuses and incentives for
production, quality, and for sales increases.”
The way Heath’s system is set up,
the incentives stem from a symbiotic-based philosophy. Because
the district and production managers share the same final
numbers with all of the employees underneath them, it benefits
everybody to work together.
“It’s just a tremendous
synergy that it creates,” he added. “They see that
in the last five years that everyone of them has made more
money each year because they’re all aiming for the same
goals. In turn, we’ve had record years every year for the
five years I’ve owned the company and this year will be
the biggest one in the history of the company.”
Running a cleaning operation with 15
(soon to be 17) locations and keeping track of 145 employees
doesn’t leave a lot of spare time for Heath, but he
remains active in the industry and in his community.
He is a board member for WSDLA, an IDC
member and has participated in the Sid Tuchman group since
1998. He’s also on the Wells Fargo Community Banking
board and is a Conquistador in Tucson, a group of businessmen
who recently raised more than $1 million for local charity.
While Sparkle gives to many local
charities, one cause hits a little bit close to home for Heath.
“We’re the official sponsor
for the Southern Arizona Diaper Bank this year,” he said.
“So, this holiday season, people can drop off diapers at
all 15 locations to go to needy families. That’s a
disposable amount of income for these young families. I know.
When I was buying diapers for my daughter while I was working
for Craig’s Cleaners making $7 an hour — well, if
you can put away that money for Christmas, that’s
fantastic.”
Fortunately, circumstances have improved
a bit for Heath since then. These days, he’s a lot more
content.
“I’m 36 now and I see myself
doing this for quite a long time,” he said. “I have
an absolutely wonderful life, a wonderful wife and family.
I’m a kid from a small town in Louisiana. I’ve done
more than I ever thought I would do anyway, so now I’m
really appreciating it and having fun doing it.”