KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Reaching the 100-year milestone in business is no small task. Arrow Fabricare Services certainly has reason to celebrate its centennial, which it plans to do in style with current, former and retired employees in December.
Polish immigrant Joseph Gershon planned to call his new business “Gershon Tailors,” but his cousin, a haberdasher, suggested “Arrow,” like popular shirts sold during the time. The name remains a perfect match for current owner Bruce Gershon, the third generation of his family to helm the business.
“Dad (Bob Gershon) and Grandpa (Joseph Gershon) always stressed doing a good job and doing it the right way,” says Bruce. “That’s one of the main reasons we’re still in business today.”
ON TARGET
Joseph Gershon married and raised a family in Kansas City. His business grew through the 1920s and ’30s as it gathered a strong, loyal customer following. Son Melvin worked alongside his father, and then son Bob returned from World War II in 1947. It was around that time that Joseph decided to bring dry cleaning in-house.
Bob Gershon was hands-on, running deliveries, pressing clothing and growing the family business, which eventually earned the title “Kansas City’s Exclusive Specialty Cleaners.” Arrow also developed a solid reputation amongst dry cleaners, thanks in part to some innovations developed by Melvin Gershon.
“My uncle Mel actually invented two things in the time he was here in this plant,” says Bruce Gershon. “One of those things was the foam press pad, which is still used in many dry cleaners even today, and after a 17-year run with the patent, Qualitex bought that out.”
The other invention, which he didn’t patent but was adopted and made widely popular by Cissell, was the electric thumb switch on a steam iron.
While Melvin soon left Arrow to pursue a career in engineering, Bob remained with his father and assumed more of the day-to-day responsibilities.
Arrow hired its first full-time dry cleaner, Leo Smith, who’d been working as a janitor at the corner drug store. He worked for the company 36 years.
In the mid-1950s, Bob and a partner jumped into the leather cleaning business, then in its infancy.
Joseph died in February 1963. Bob persevered through the polyester and wash-and-wear craze of the 1960s that proved fatal to thousands of dry cleaners. Looking back, it was probably leather and suede cleaning that sustained Arrow.
GROWING PAINS
The company has had its share of growing pains, especially since Bruce began working full-time in 1974. Arrow had a little more than a half-dozen employees then, half of whom were family members.
During a major remodeling project of the original building in 1978, a new front was erected and the building connected to the cleaning plant. The following year, the family bought a vacant store across the street to expand its fur cleaning business and accommodate employee parking as the company grew. Next came a 2,400-square-foot fault for fur storage.
In 1985, Arrow acquired its largest local competitor in the leather, fur and specialty cleaning business. The company bought two adjacent buildings to the south, expanding to the corner of 39th and Troost.
“We never had off-street parking, so we decided to tear down the old Manor Hall building, for parking adjacent to our new front entrance,” Bruce Gershon says. “All of a sudden, we had great visibility, and parking, and our over-the-counter business quadrupled.”
The company rebranded and began doing business as Arrow Fabricare Services, to emphasize its diversified services.
In 1994, Arrow added about 4,000 square feet of space to its distribution and check-in area to accommodate expanding retail routes.
In 2001, Bruce Gershon purchased Blanc Plume Fine French Laundry. This accommodated expansion of Arrow’s fire restoration division, which moved into the north Kansas City facility and immediately doubled its volume.
When local officials approached Arrow about a plan to build a bus waiting station and early childhood development facility on the northeast corner of 39th and Troost, it meant the loss of 4,200 square feet of space plus employee parking, but the chance to expand to the north, add 6,300 square feet to the leather and fur department, and revamp its production flow. The new building opened in 2004.
In October 2010, the company acquired the drapery cleaning equipment from its retiring vendor and set up shop in Kansas City, Kan.
Arrow’s resources are divided between two buildings totaling more than 48,000 square feet, and its work force numbers approximately 80, depending on the season.
One would be hard-pressed to find a dry cleaning service in which Arrow does not specialize. While Bruce Gershon admits all the diversity can make the business “more challenging to operate,” he is quick to point out the company’s focus remains simple.
“The emphasis today in our business is on quality,” he says. “We’re constantly studying different ways to improve our quality and training, investing in our greatest resource, our people. We want our customers to come to Arrow and feel like they are going to a place where they can get answers.”
And it’s possible that a customer may even see Bob Gershon, now age 88, who still comes down to the business for a few hours each weekday morning. Continuity may also have something to do with Arrow’s longevity.
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Dave Davis at [email protected].