| Creating
the Ultimate Formalwear Experience! |
| ‘Quality Merchandise and Service at a Fair Price’
was the foundation on which Jim Davis built his business. He
was the owner and operator of Jim’s Mens and Boys store, a successful
men’s apparel shop established by his father. The store was located
in the small town of Trenton, Illinois, 35 miles from downtown St. Louis.
Jim’s outstanding reputation in this rural community was based on
his commitment to serve his customers with the finest merchandise available. |
 |
Jim
Davis
Company Founder |
|
| Jim offered tuxedos for rental through a wholesale formalwear
supplier in nearby St. Louis. Unfortunately, the quality and service he
received from this company did not meet his expectations. More importantly,
it did not meet the expectations of his customers. On one occasion, a
long-time customer was so dissatisfied with the quality of a tuxedo that
he quit shopping at Jim’s Mens and Boys for any of his clothing
needs. These situations were frustrating to Jim. His store’s reputation,
something for which he had worked long and hard to build up, was suffering.
Finally, he decided to do something about it... |
| Prior to owning his own men’s store, Jim traveled
Southern Illinois and Missouri as a manufacturer’s representative.
His character, honesty and salesmanship earned him many friends
in the menswear business. He called these old friends and soon
learned that they, too, were frustrated with their formalwear supplier.
Jim asked their support if he would provide quality tuxedos and service
at a fair price. Everyone said they would back him in his new venture! |
| Jim’s Formal Wear was born in 1964 when Jim
purchased 200 black coats, 200 white coats and 50 dozen formal shirts.
He started his fledgling business in a small 900 square foot house behind
the men’s store and had no idea what the future would bring! |
| Fortunately, the company began to grow steadily from the
beginning. Jim moved to an abandoned flour mill on the south side of Trenton
and enlisted the help of his family, his brother Don and many dedicated
employees to build the business. |
| During the 1960's, Jim started his own chain of retail stores
under the name of Mister Penguin and began to franchise stores in other
parts of the country. |
| Eventually, there would be nearly forty Mister Penguin stores
in operation! Along with the retail stores, the company established new
wholesale distribution centers in Northern Illinois, Indiana, Colorado,
Kansas, Texas, Louisiana and Minnesota. Jim also began operating formalwear
departments in ten major St. Louis department stores. As all of this was
going on, Jim continued to build onto the old flour mill until the facility
reached 30,000 square feet of office and production space. |
| In 1984, misfortune struck as Jim suffered a heart attack
and underwent major surgery. The doctors told him it was time to give
up his successful formalwear business. Fortunately, Jim and his wife Betty
had two sons that had grown up with the business. Gary and Mike were actively
involved and controlled various aspects of the rapidly growing company. |
| In September of that year, Jim's youngest son, Gary,
purchased the company from his father and brother. Mike then
moved to California where he opened up his own very successful retail
tuxedo shop. Jim passed away in February of 1996. |
| Under Gary’s leadership, the company began focusing
its efforts solely on wholesale distribution. Franchising was discontinued
and company-owned Mister Penguin retail stores were either sold or discontinued.
In 1986, the Minnesota distribution center was moved to suburban Atlanta
to better serve the growing needs of the Southeast. |
| Over the next five years, each regional distribution center
was totally revamped. Newer, efficient production and cleaning facilities
were developed to improve quality and timeliness of delivery. Each center
also became computerized allowing effective control of orders and inventory.
New Jim’s Formal Wear catalogs and marketing materials were designed
to help enhance each dealer’s position in their respective markets. |
| The company’s outstanding growth during the Eighties
also called for expansion of the corporate offices. So, in January of
1990, Jim’s Formal Wear moved into its new state-of-the art facility
on a four acre tract of land east of Trenton. The 52,000 square foot building
that was thought to be big enough to meet the needs for the next 20 years,
has been added onto three times. The facility now totals over 80,000 square,
on eight acres, and houses the latest technology in order processing and
company control. |
| In 1993, Jim’s Formal Wear introduced ‘The
Formal Guarantee.’ It assures all Jim’s Retailers
that they will receive a high quality ensemble in the size they ordered,
in the time they need it or it’s FREE. Jim’s Formal
Wear was the first wholesale formalwear distributor to put a guarantee
like this in writing. |
| Early 1999 found Jim’s Formal Wear establishing services
on the West Coast with the opening of its eighth service center in Visalia,
California. |
| In 2004, JFW entered the Garment
& Textile Restoration business by purchasing a franchise from
Certified Restoration Drycleaning Network, also known as CRDN.
As a member of CRDN, Jim's Formal Wear works in concert with insurance
companies to settle claims efficiently. Responding to disaster scenes
with a 24 hour pick-up service, available seven days a week, JFW copiles
a comprehensive inventory of damaged clothing and fabric articles, cleans
the items, stores them until the homeowner is ready for them, and then
returns them to their original location. The process is very convenient
for the homeowner and offers substantial savings to insurance companies. |
| In 2005, Jim's Formal Wear purchased U.S. Tuxedo
based in Endicott, New York. The acquisition of this ninth Service
Center allows JFW to better service retailers in the northeast region
of the country. |
| In addition to financial success, JFW takes a great deal
of pride in being a responsible corporate citizen and in the contributions
that have been made to our surrounding communities. Hundreds of
thousands of dollars have been donated to: local schools; churches;
needy families; scholarship funds; local police, fire and ambulance services;
the United Way; the Ronald McDonald House; Visiting Nurses Associations
and the Shriner's Hospital for Children, just to name a few. |
| Today, Jim’s Formal Wear Company is known
as 'the largest wholesale formalwear rental company in the world.'
Its nine strategically located facilities total over 240,000 square feet
of office, production and warehouse space. These centers service over
6,000 independently owned retailers coast to coast. It’s true that
the operation of nine facilities is more costly, but this allows Jim’s
to service its customers thoroughly and effectively. Jim Davis’
founding principle of ‘Quality Merchandise & Service at a Fair
Price’ has remained and continues to be the company’s philosophy
today. |
| We publish our Company History to help illustrate the importance
to us of superior service to our Retailers, and, our end-consumers. Jim’s
Formal Wear will do their best to never betray the trust their customers
place in them and likewise, the trust the end-consumer places in Jim’s
Formal Wear Retailers. Special events that require formal attire
are far too important to accept less than the very best! We will
never forget our roots and why this business was founded. We live by our
mission statement... |
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Doing whatever it takes
to create the Ultimate Formalwear Experience!
|
