California Apparel News

Last year was a difficult one for Gerber Technology, but recent changes—including some local efforts—have the company in a bright position.

In 2002, Gerber’s parent company, Gerber Scientific, was hampered by lawsuits and suffered one of the worst years in its 55-year history.

This year, Gerber Technology has found a way to pick up the slack and contribute to its bottom line with double-digit profit and sales growth at a time when domestic apparel manufacturing continues to be challenged by offshore labor. Gerber’s apparel-division profits surged 24 percent to $37 million last year, despite parent company Gerber Scientific suffering a $119 million loss. The West Coast division’s sales outpaced others with growth topping 40 percent.

With a new regional director in Alan Seymour and a beefed-up sales team, which includes newly appointed Rodney Harrelson, Gerber’s Los Angeles bureau is poised to continue the solid results this year. Diversification and innovation have been key to local growth. Seymour and Gerber know that the company can’t survive on apparel alone, so Gerber has continued branching out into other sewn-product segments like upholstery and furniture makers, composite material manufacturers and others. So the formerly dominant apparel group has given way to companies that make seats for automobiles and aerospace companies that make spaceage materials for satellites.

Knowing that Los Angeles has become a big community of product development managers and importers, the company has been gaining ground in software sales with its WebPDM (product datamanagement) application, Artworks Studio design and merchandising software and Accumark pattern-making package. In addition, the company still maintains a staple cutting-equipment business, selling cutters and spreaders to the region’s top apparel producers.

The scenario in the California apparel market isn’t as bad as some make it out to be, said Seymour, who was promoted to Los Angeles after spending six years at the company’s Toronto, Canada, headquarters.

“It’s a fairly vibrant market,” he said. “It’s not bad right now [in Los Angeles]. In Canada, we have to do a lot of knocking on doors. Here, they are calling you— though we still believe in knocking on doors.”

Gerber’s West Coast bureau, based on Washington Street in the Vernon/East L.A. manufacturing corridor, handles customers from Mexico to British Columbia in Canada. Seymour estimates the region accounts for 20 percent to 25 percent of Gerber Technology’s revenues.

When customers talk, Gerber listens

Aside from diversification, Seymour said Gerber has been gaining customer loyalty through listening to its customers. The company launched a series of user conferences—the most recent in Houston—pulling customers together in informal settings to gain feedback on how to improve product and services. On top of this, Gerber has been relying on Internet-based user groups to add to that feedback. The results have been phenomenal, according to Seymour, who said the company can gain advice on a number of areas, which helps it customize and fine-tune its products.

“We’ve been working with a very prominent garment manufacturer that has a comprehensive IT [information technology] department, and they have been giving us invaluable feedback,” he said.

The results have led Seymour and others at Gerber to dispel the notion that fashion companies are behind the times when it comes to technology.

“Here, companies are technically oriented. There was a time when fashion companies were behind other industries, but I don’t think that’s the case now. They do a lot of research over the Web. They understand technology,” he explained.

In return, Gerber has been opening up its data-exchange capability, which in the past has hampered competing applications from linking with Gerber equipment. Gerber’s now a Microsoft partner and on the board of the American Apparel Manufacturers’ Association. The company most recently participated in conferences on sewn-product automation, delivering its pattern- data interchange utility, which has been updated to reflect the latest standard.