Marageret’s names top family-owned business
Margaret’s Cleaners received the 2006 Best Medium-Sized Family Owned Business Award from the San
Diego Business Journal and the University of San Diego Family Business Forum.
Based in La Jolla, CA, the company also has locations in Del Mar and Newport
Beach.
As a family owned and operated business since 1987, Margaret’s was chosen for this prestigious honor for many reasons, including: the family
members
’ participation in day-to-day operations; the number of generations of family
involved in the business; the company
’s history and sales growth; the company’s involvement in its community and its support of charities and local
organizations.
During the evaluation process, questions also included how the business had
affected the lives of each family member, how well they get along together, and
what each person
’s responsibilities are.
The husband and wife team of John and Barbara Horst purchased the five-employee
Margaret
’s Knit Blocking business in 1987, after successfully running their own
80-employee drycleaning business for 34 years in Ohio.
Twenty years later, two generations of the Horst family are involved in the
daily operations. In addition to John, chairman of the board, and Barbara,
controller, the family management includes their son, Chuck, president, their
youngest son, Scott, vice president of sales, John
’s brother, Carl, vice president of operations, and their daughter, Jan, who is
in charge of human resources.
They all choose to spend their days together, eat lunch together and live within
a few miles of one another
… rare with any family, let alone one that jointly experiences all the challenges
and stresses of running a multimillion dollar company.
Chuck, Scott, and Jan are the fourth successive generation of the Horst family
to run a drycleaning business, which started with their great-grandfather in
the late 1800s.
Margaret’s employs over 70 trained and skilled individuals in three locations, La Jolla,
Del Mar and Newport Beach. In addition to its three stores,
Margaret’s has six drivers who deliver throughout San Diego and Orange Counties. Their
many customers include Nordstrom, Saks, Neiman Marcus, Louis Vuitton, and over
60 other couture garment retailers who use Margaret
’s to take care of their finest clothing and accessories, and resolve
clothing-related issues. Margaret
’s is now the third largest couture cleaner in the nation and the only 5 Star
Certified Couture Cleaner in Southern California, as recognized by Leading
Cleaners Internationale.
The company’s services include fine drycleaning, couture alterations, beaded and evening
apparel cleaning, knit blocking and repair, wedding gown preservation,
restoration, French hand laundry, purse cleaning, and leather and suede
cleaning.
Margaret’s Cleaners web site, www.margarets.com, and an extensive brochure feature a
complete range of services and a great many customer testimonials. Recently, a
dedicated voice mail was set up to allow customers to call in audio
testimonials, some of which can be heard on the website.
Margaret’s takes pleasure in tackling challenging cleaning jobs, and often those jobs
arrive as referrals from other drycleaners, both locally and nationwide.
The company’s CleanByMail service receives a wide variety of unusual, and often difficult,
jobs every day, from restoring a collection of Civil War uniforms to cleaning a
favorite Prada purse that was damaged by another drycleaner.
The Prada story is featured on the company’s purse blog: pursecleaning.blogspot.com.
Margaret’s Cleaners is a member of the the Association of Bridal Consultants, the
Association of Wedding Gown Specialists, the Better Business Bureau, the
California Cleaners Association, Fashion Group International, International
Drycleaners Congress, International Fabricare Institute, Leading Cleaners
Internationale, Methods for Management and National Cleaners Association.
NCA graduates 10 radical drycleaners
All students received Certifications of Successful Completion after attending
the five all-day session at the New York School of Drycleaning in New York
City.
Alan Spielvogel, NCA’s technical director and chief garment analyst, was the instructor. He is
licensed by the New York State Department of Education. The course included
intensive, hands-on training on drycleaning principles and practices.
The training course, which is included in the Platinum Member Package, includes
hands-on and classroom training on a variety of subjects, including fibers and
fabrics; dyes, surface prints, optical brighteners, coatings and laminates;
garment construction; stain removal; bleaching; drycleaning principles and
practices; machinery; solvents; and distillation.
“I am in the process of training a new spotter for our business, so I attended
the course with him as I had never formally taken a spotting course and thought
it would be worthwhile to us both, as well as our customers to get the
‘formalized’ training,” said Surendra Kumar, owner of Oakwood Cleaners in Hermitage, TN. “We both learned a lot in the week we spent at NCA. Even though I had been
spotting for the last 20 years, I now have a level of confidence that I had
never had before. Alan was very detailed and thorough in his presentations and
helped us build a good foundation.
”
“It takes specialized training and detailed care to properly treat a wide variety
of garments and fabric items, which are all made of different materials,
” Spielvogel said. “State and federal regulations also change on a regular basis, making it even
more important to stay up-to-date on the latest and most effective solvents and
machinery options.
“
NCA has more than 60 years of experience providing state certified training and
garment analysis services and was the first cleaning association to be approved
as a recognized New York Department of Environmental Commission training
organization, he noted.Zengeler Cleaners in Northbrook, IL, teamed up with the
Glass Slipper Project again to help high-school girls get the gear they need to
attend their proms.
Johnson rejoins Parker Boiler
Doug Johnson has rejoined the Parker Boiler team to serve customers in San Diego, southern San Bernardino, Riverside and
Imperial Counties with boiler and minor service requirements.
He has been associated with Parker Boiler Company for over 20 years, is trained
on Parker products and worked in the production and service department before
running his own boiler service company. His assignment is to serve all accounts
in the territory with a full-time program, recognizing the increased business
the company has enjoyed in these communities in recent years.
The Parker Boiler Co., founded in 1919, manufactures steam boilers from 1.5HP to
150HP with pressures to 250 PSI capable of delivery dry steam in less than 10
minutes. The company makes direct-fired hot water boilers, available in gas,
oil propane, or combination-fired, ranging from 300,000 BTU to 6,800,000 BTU
with operating temperatures to 400
°F and pressures of 300 PSI.
Parker’s indirect-fired water heaters, available in gas or propane fired, range from
300,000 to 3,000,000 BTU input, with operating temperatures to 190
°F and pressures to 150 PSI. High temperature thermal fluid liquid heaters are
available in gas, oil, propane, or combination fired for process heating up to
650
°F, ranging from 126,000 to 6,250,000 BTU input. Also, Parker makes low Nox steam
and hot water boiler and burner systems. Most models are UL or ETL listed.
The company is located in Los Angeles, CA, phone: (323) 727-9800. Johnson can be
reached by e-mail at djohnson@parkerboiler.com.
Zengeler Cleaners helps prom project
Zengeler Cleaners in Northbrook, IL, teamed up with the Glass Slipper Project
again to help high-school girls get the gear they need to attend their proms.
Zengeler reports that 1,379 dresses were donated by local students and Zengeler
customers, along with 166 pairs of shoes, 110 purses and hundreds of other
accessories and pieces of jewelry, enabling thousands of high school women to
enjoy the prom experience.
Zengeler Cleaners has partnered with The Glass Slipper Project (GSP) since 2003.
The organization was founded in 1999 by a small group of women who recognized
that many high school girls cannot afford the expense of attending their own
proms. The organization set out to collect formal dresses and accessories, then
provide them at no cost to students unable to purchase their own finery.
This year’s donations were distributed at Glass Slipper Project “boutiques” in April and early May, with more than 600 volunteers helping eager students
choose the dress and accessories of their dreams. Over the past nine years, the
GSP and its team of volunteers have helped nearly 10,000 young women enjoy the
prom experience.
“Zengeler Cleaners is extremely pleased with the response of students and our
customers,
” noted Tom Zengeler, president of the company. “Students and parent organizations from both Lake and McHenry Counties backed
this year
’s collection effort, making it one of the most successful yet.”
Students from dozens of schools participated, including New Trier, Carmel,
Deerfield and Glenbrook North High Schools and Richmond Elementary School.
“It was heartwarming to see so many students contribute to this cause,” Zengeler added. “Their support sends a strong message about their spirit of giving and the
importance of the Glass Slipper Project.
”
Zengeler Cleaners’ stores were the primary collection centers for GSP donations in northern
Illinois. Each dress was inspected and repaired as needed, then professionally
cleaned and transported to the Glass Slipper Project.
This was part of Zengeler Cleaners’ commitment to assure that students benefiting from these donations had a
first-class experience.
The entire cost of cleaning, repair and delivery was donated by Zengeler
Cleaners.
Founded in 1857, Zengeler Cleaners is celebrating its 150th anniversary in 2007.
For more information about the company and its support of The Glass Slipper
Project, contact Zengeler at (847) 272-6550, or visit
www.zengelercleaners.com.
