by Hugh R. Morley Staff Writer

 

The owner of what apparently is the last sizable textile mill in North Jersey, Gasner and his company, Garfield-based Wearbest Sil-Tex Mills Ltd., faced a host of challenges even before the recession hit, from North Jersey's high cost of doing business to low-cost foreign competition.

And the downturn of the housing market, which provides much of the upholstery manufacturer's business, has pushed the company to the edge.

In the last two years, Gasner has reduced his workforce from 150 to 90, cut operating hours from three shifts a day to two and shrunk the production week from six days to five. He declined to say how much revenue is down, but noted that some industry sectors have fallen by 50 percent.

Yet the 55-year-old entrepreneur is confident the company won't go the way of his North Jersey-based rivals, which have been closing for decades. The secret of the company's survival, he said, is carving out a niche that is too small or unique for foreign competitors to target. In June, Wearbest Sil-Tex Mills released a new fabric, Fresca-Tela, that is durable, easy to clean and aimed at the growing market for health care facilities that cater to aging baby boomers.

"We will never be known as a low-cost producer," said Gasner on a recent morning at the company's 75,000-square-foot factory, as some of his 60 looms hummed in the background

"We simply can't in Bergen County," he said. "So we must compete on other core competencies. We compete on excellence in design. Excellence in service. And we provide short runs and a quick delivery."

It's a philosophy that industry analysts say the dwindling number of textile manufacturers across the nation have embraced as they struggle to hold their ground against the glut of cheap imported fabrics that has devastated the industry, especially in North Jersey.

The once-dominant industry that gave Paterson its nickname - Silk City - faded in the middle of the 20th century as companies moved to low-cost, non-union states in the South.

The rise of production in China and other low-wage countries accelerated the decline, as did the 2004 removal of trade quotas limiting the number of garments imported into the U.S. each year.

Gasner, and several others familiar with the industry, said there are now no other sizable textile mills in North Jersey and only a handful of dye and embroidery companies. The last local rival, Kalkstein Silk Mills of Paterson, shut its production facility about five years ago.

Mohamad Younes, owner of Paterson-based Champion Dyeing and Finishing, one of the few dye-houses left in North Jersey, said he had no idea there were any weavers left in the area.

"The textile industry is finished," Younes said. "There is no textile industry in the state anymore."

Gasner started the business in 1980 with his wife, Florie, buying an East Rutherford silk mill that had employed his father and grandfather in the 1930s and 1940s, when it was in Paterson. Textiles were "in my blood, from in utero," said Gasner, who was 26 when he started the company.

He moved the mill to Passaic, slowly building the business from 12 employees to about 50. But in 1985, a Labor Day fire destroyed four city blocks, and Gasner arrived in time see his factory's roof "implode."

"We lost the mill. We lost all of our records," said Gasner, adding that he never thought about quitting the business. "I only knew how to make a living one way."

He started up again on a 4-acre site in Garfield, outsourcing production at first, and rebuilding his own operation, which is non-union. In the last 10 years, he has retooled the factory with state-of-the-art equipment.

The factory, which uses Jacquard looms, can produce runs as short as 55 yards of cloth in as little as a day or two - far less than the typical run of 1,000 yards at an overseas company, which could take months to ship to the U.S., Gasner said.

The quick turnaround enables customers to save by reducing inventory and improving their ability to use just-in-time supply chain strategies.

His design team - housed in Garfield and a New York showroom - is also key to the company's competitive edge, Gasner said.

Company fabric has been used in a variety of high-profile locations. They include the White House in the Reagan era, The Ritz-Carlton in Miami Beach, Fla., and in Starbucks worldwide, Gasner said.

The creation of Bella~Dura™ Healthcare follows the launch of Bella~Dura™ five years ago that was produced by a 12-member team working on and off for two years to come up with highly durable cloth that would not fade easily, he said.

"There were fabrics in the market that individually did some of what Bella~Dura™ does," Gasner said. "But there were no fabrics that had all of these attributes."

The company also seeks to differentiate itself from foreign imports by tapping into consumers' growing green-consciousness, he said.

The yarn used in Bella~Dura™ Healthcare, for instance, is made of recycled plastic water bottles while yarn for Bella~Dura™ is made from a by-product of oil production. Two years ago, Wearbest Sil-Tex Mills started a recycling program to collect used Bella~Dura™ fabric and turn it into plastic pellets that can be made into handles, air filters and other plastic items.

That kind of flexibility is key to the survival of American weave companies, said Steven Frumkin, a business professor at Philadelphia University, formerly Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science. To stay in business, they manufacture a variety of products, ranging from medical mesh used to repair post-operation hernia wounds to Kevlar vest material, highly durable fabric for military use and support socks that help maintain the circulation of diabetics, he said.

Yet Gasner worries about the impact of the recession in his industry, and believes the government should do more.

"This economy has lambasted the last bastion of textile weaving in this country," he said. "And we do not get any help. There is no Cash for Clunkers for the upholstery industry."