Those who have been to Montana know exactly why the state has been nicknamed “Big Sky Country.”
Known for possessing a landscape rich in natural splendor, Montana is teeming
with rolling plains, jagged mountains and crystal clear bodies of water,
especially in the state’s breathtaking Flathead Valley.
Tucked away in the northwest corner of the state, Flathead Valley houses Glacier
National Park, Flathead Lake, and, at its hub, is the city of Kalispell, home
of Sutherland Cleaners for 62 years.
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“Generally, you can find me on the river flyfishing, or out in boats going down
the lake to an island that’s called Wild Horse Island,” Steve said. “It’s a state park that still has wild horses and a lot of rocky mountain sheep on
it. We also do a lot of hiking. We go into the park quite a bit. It has an
incredible view. There are a lot of lakes up in that area.”
In Glacier Park alone, there are more than 175 named mountains (43 of which are
over 9,000 ft. in elevation), 762 lakes that cover 30,022 surface acres, and
563 streams and rivers that cover 1,513 miles altogether.
“I have too many boats — I quit counting at seven,” Steve laughed. “They are different sizes for different waters, from rubber rafts to pontoons to
big lake boats and small lake boats. I mean, you can’t take a pretty big boat to a little tiny lake.”
For Steve, every weekend offers a chance for him to shift gears and recharge his
mind. Most cleaners rely on vacations once or twice a year to do this, but he
only needs the weekends.
“In 2001, my wife and I went to Mexico for a vacation,” Steve recalled. “You know how they want to try to sell you condos? Well, this woman was hitting
us hard. I said, ‘You know, I don’t think we’ll ever be back.’ She said, ‘Don’t you go on vacation every year?’ I said, ‘No. This is our first vacation in 23 years.’“
Fortunately for Steve, and Brith (pronounced Breet), they love what they do and
they don’t need to leave the area to unwind and relax. Of course, that just makes them
work harder during the week, and, since they close on the weekends, nothing
will cause the doors to close during the week — not even Mother Nature.
“In 1996, I think we had on the Valley floor close to ten feet of snow,” he explained. “I know going up towards the Continental Divide, at about 7,000 ft. they had
close to 35 feet of snow. They were running out of places to put snow in the
Valley. We had a couple of good blizzards, but we were still open — not a lot of customers, but we were still open.”
The first time Sutherland Cleaners officially opened its doors was about 62
years ago. Steve’s father, Bill, started the business in 1946. Prior to that, however, he had
worked as a tailor in Conrad, MT.
“The tailors at the time were also doing cleaning, but they didn’t really have much for machinery,” Steve noted. “They were actually doing it out of five-gallon buckets. They were hanging the
clothes outside and letting them dry. Back then, they were actually taking the
clothes apart, in a lot of cases, in order to clean them, and then they’d put them back together. That’s a lot of work.”
During World War II, Bill Sutherland headed off to help the Allied efforts as a
plane mechanic, a navigator and as a co-pilot. In 1945, he returned home, moved
to Kalispell, and launched Sutherland Cleaners in 1946.
“He was in one location on First Avenue West, and it was right next to a bank,” Steve noted. “The bank decided they wanted the building so they traded him land and bought the
building from him. He built a brand new building in 1959.”
The company has remained in the same location ever since.
One way Sutherland Cleaners was able to stand out in its early days was because
it offered drive-thru service.
“At that time, even the Dairy Queens and the A&W’s didn’t have drive-thrus,” Steve said. “The banks didn’t even have drive-thrus, either, so it was really a curious thing.”
Steve believes the business was able to be successful in large part due to his
father’s stain removal knowledge.
“My father knew a lot about the chemical procedures,” he said. “Back then, they were mixing their own soaps. As far as buying spotters, you were
basically mixing a lot of your own. A lot of that wasn’t even available.”
Like many second generation cleaners, Steve grew up around the plant. In fact,
some of his earliest memories occurred there.
“I do remember being in the laundry baskets when I was small, to keep me away
from the hot presses,” he recalled. “Even if we were there for just a few minutes, they’d set me down in the basket — not that I really spent very much time there.”
As he got older, he chipped in by doing a little bit of everything, even sewing.
He started learning the art of needle and thread at age 12. Things were a lot
different back then.
“It was a time when you could still leave clothes by the back door, or the front
door even, and not have to worry about it.”
Steve did not remain working at the family plant after high school; instead, he
went off to find his own direction.
That direction turned out to be southwest, initially, as he headed to Oregon to
work for a pipe-fitting company. Then, he moved back to Kalispell to work on
the potlines at Anaconda Aluminum, Co.
He met Brith there, and, two years later the couple were married in 1981, the
same year Steve’s father was looking to sell the business and retire.
“The company was not that large,” Steve recalled. “So, for me to leave Anaconda Aluminum I had to take a big pay dump in order to
buy my own business.”
It was a tough first few years, but investing in newer, more efficient,
equipment helped.
“I know that after we purchased the first perc machine, my father was astounded
by the mileage we were getting,” Steve laughed. “He just basically came out and said, ‘You’re lying.’ The boiler came around about five years later, along with a new conveyor and
new presses.”
While the new equipment helped, Steve also realized that small plants can’t afford to throw out anything old.
“I still have some pieces of equipment that probably came from the old building,” he said. “I have an old Hoffman panter press. When I call for parts, they laugh at me. The
serial number on it is MW-1. That’s it. They hear that and always start laughing. But, we’re an old drycleaner, we never throw anything away. We recycle everything.”
Equipment is not the only thing that Sutherland Cleaners recycles; they also
specialize in keeping customers coming back for more. In fact, they have many
third and fourth generation clients.
“We have a lot of old customers who we’ve had for a long time that we’ve known personally,” Steve said. “I’ve watched my father’s customers pass away, and that’s really hard. When they get to the point that they go to a nursing home or
assisted living and they need that extra personal attention, then we go ahead
and deliver and pick up for them.”
One thing that keeps them coming back time and again is no big secret: quality.
“Quality is still a really important thing,” Steve said. “I don’t care what anybody says, there is a difference.”
That is also the slogan for the company. One way they make sure there really is
a difference is by scrutinizing their final product.
“Probably the biggest thing is inspection, making sure the garments are done
quickly and all the spots are out,” he added.
“When I walk to the counter, I can take the garments off the line and say, ‘Here are your garments,’ and I can feel very proud of how it’s going to look, that they are not going to open them and have a problem.”
Currently, Sutherland Cleaners is the biggest its ever been in its
six-decades-plus of existence. There are six employees, including Steve and
Brith.
One unusual practice at Sutherland is that it does not employ a full-time
counter person. Despite that fact, the company hardly lacks in delivering
customer service.
“What I do is all of my staff — everybody — gets a turn to work the counter,” Steve noted. “They are designated certain hours. They have to walk away from the press and
wait on the counter so that they can get to know the customers. If something’s not right, they are going to hear about it from them.”
Mistakes inevitably happen (on occasion), but Sutherland’s policy is to be forthright and honest.
“If we make a mistake, we want to contact the customer first,” Steve noted. “We call them on the phone and let them know what’s going on, what happened, or to get permission.”
In that way, the company has not changed much from its humble beginnings in
1946. Steve is simply trying to carry on the tradition set by his father before
him. Why tamper with a formula that has worked so well so far?
“Being the small business that we are, you can only do so much,” he said. “But, we do whatever it takes.”
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