Garland expansion ongoing

GARLAND — Just a few weeks ago in Garland, the first crew came into the building with aims to clean up everything. A fantastic facelift was done, and from there folks were coming in droves to apply for positions at the Garland Shirt Factory.

Now Garland is set to see even more of a boon in the form of a new expansion and additional hiring, with owner Kenneth Ragland explaining that even more equipment is coming too as part of the Garland Apparel Group’s new focus.

Currently they are working on shirts, picking up projects from different companies and fulfilling orders as they come in, this way they don’t have to keep a load of inventory, representatives said.

They may end up doing some work for Brooks Brothers, but it won’t be like they were doing before.

“So the shirting side is moving along,” he said. “It is doing extremely well and we are getting orders every day.”

Ragland and his team are taking on new business all the time, and working out contracts for a variety of different projects. Right now they are working on creating a contract with a men’s brand from the 1980s that is looking to bring back some of their production back stateside.

“But most importantly they want to tie into us with sustainable and organic cotton that is raised in the United States,” he said. “They want a, from end to end, made in the U.S. of U.S. components.”

He described the situation as a “huge opportunity” with 100,000 units a year or more. Additionally they are looking at working with some companies that Garland has worked with in the past, and Ragland said Polo Ralph Lauren was one brand they are looking towards.

“We are trying to finalize a program for shirting with them,” he said.

Right now the hopes are that they will be potentially be able to add onto the building, especially since they are moving their tailor production, or suit making, to the Garland location.

“So this factory is literally going to have two lines,” he said.

This is going to involve hiring 50 to 60 union employees he said, and another 10 to 12 professionals. He is moving six people down to Garland for this.

In addition to all of this they are working on developing a brand for the company, something specific that will come out of the Garland Shirt Factory.

“That brand will be ‘Garland Works,’” he said.

Right now they are in the last stages of finalizing the design, and Garland Works will be an online business, something that Ragland said that he is very excited about.

There will be soft shouldered jackets, trousers, shirting and more.

This won’t be the only bit of ground that Garland will be breaking — they will be the only factory in the United States that can do both tailored units and shirting, he explained.

“They typically very incompatible to one another,” Ragland said.

That’s going to require training assistance and being a part of the community.

“The goal here is to invest,” he said. “Between the roof, the air conditioning and other repairs, probably spent around $500,000. I suspect that there’s going to be another million dollars that is going to be spent in the next six to nine months.”

Ragland said that he is supposed to be retiring shortly, but that he is planning to finish up and be in that position in the middle of next year. He has been in this industry for 43 years and it was something that he fell into out of graduate school.

The people he is bringing down to help with the setup include folks that are going to see a bit of a culture shock, he said, explaining that this is indicative of having a diverse work force. One person is who is coming down is from India, a husband and wife from Albania, and one person is from Rochester, N.Y..

“That’s what this industry has been built on, for generations,” he said, stating that folks that had come into their Chicago factory were often Italian or Irish.

Ragland said that these folks come in to do work that a lot of folks don’t want to do or their children don’t want to do, explaining that we have become spoiled.

“These are people who come here with a purpose. They want to take care of their families and raise their kids, raise their lifestyle, and we need to be mindful of that.”

One of the most burning questions folks in the area have is whether or not the outlet will return.

Ragland said that there is not going to be a commitment to that, as having the outlet wasn’t practical before. It was essentially a money pit, according to him, where Brooks Brothers was selling items they were losing money on, while losing money selling them.