A family pattern for
success
Sunday,
December 18, 2005
By HUGH R.
MORLEY
STAFF
WRITER
Some
people are pressured to work for the family firm.
Roger
Berkley chose to, and found himself facing one of the more daunting tasks in
North Jersey commerce today: running a successful textile
company.
A staple
of Paterson's hustling, bustling silk industry in the early 1900s, Berkley's
company - Hackensack-based Weave Corp. - is one of the few surviving relics
from that era.
The
company has marched on even as the industry shifted first to the Southern
states and then abroad, lured by low cost foreign manufacturers, most notably
those in China.
Now in its
fourth generation, the family business has succeeded by carving out a
lucrative, expanding market niche, making top of the line fabrics, including
silks, mainly used for high-end upholstery.
You won't
find Weave Corp. products in many stores; mostly they are bought by interior
designers and quality furniture makers. Company fabric, for instance,
decorated the Camp David presidential retreat while Ronald Reagan was in
office. It graced the chairs on which British and Chinese officials sat as
Britain ceded Hong Kong to China in 1997.
And
Berkley is confident that by mining the same market, he can continue to make
fabrics in the U.S., going abroad only to expand his line and buttress his
profitability.
"We are
very efficient with a high level of worker productivity," he said. "In the
long run, I believe that we will become increasingly customized, increasingly
exclusive, and that will allow us to prosper."
By making
short runs of material made to order - sometimes as small as a 25-yard roll -
with a rapid turnaround, Weave Corp. can provide quality products and service
that no foreign manufacturer can match, he said.
It does so
with 168 employees in headquarters in Hackensack, a sales office in New York
and a factory at Denver, Pa., in the heart of Amish country. The company also
contracts for the manufacture of silk fabric in China. Revenue, under $50
million a year, is rising at about 3 percent a year, Berkley
said.
The
company's competitive edge is dedication to quality, said Karl Spilhaus,
president of the National Textile Association, a Boston-based trade
group.
While the
Chinese have mastered simpler weaves, he said, they neither have the technical
ability nor the desire; they are more interested in apparel than taking on the
20 or so U.S.-based weavers who compete with Weave Corp. for the top end of
the American market.
The
company's other secret weapon is Berkley himself, Spilhaus said.
"He's very
capable. He's smart and he's a good people person," Spilhaus said. "It's a
company that's got the personal stamp of a very personable
owner."
Berkley's
grandfather, Louis Cohen, a South African immigrant, began the company - then
a silk mill - in Paterson in 1910. Cohen passed it to his son-in-law, who
passed it to his two sons-in-law - one of whom was Berkley's father, Robert.
He gave the company's reins to Roger in 1995.
The
company's focus, over time, has changed to meet the rapidly evolving
environment, mostly through innovation. In the 1950s, Weave Corp. became the
first in the country to use the European-style Jacquard weaving machine, a
faster and cleaner process, Berkley said.
Other
innovations that have kept the company competitive include its use of
shuttleless weaving machines - which are faster, more versatile and create
fewer defects. In 1979, the company was the first in the U.S. to use
electronic Jacquard weaving machinery.
The
company closed its Paterson mills in 1967, as much of the industry around it
fled to cheaper, Southern states, Berkley said.
"The
equipment was ancient," he said. "The building stood in the way of Route 80
and looked like it was going to go."
In its
place, Weave Corp. opened the Denver, Pa., factory, which has since grown to
160,000 square feet. Squeezed by high raw-material prices, the company stopped
making silk in the 1960s and switched production from fabric for apparel and
ties, to upholstery material.
Berkley
joined the company in 1973 as the transition commenced. Until then, he had
sought - somewhat unsuccessfully - to become a tenured teacher. He was brought
to his senses by one of his old high school teacher.
"He said,
'You don't work well with anybody,'?" Berkley, 59, remembers. "You need to be
your own boss."
He said
his father, who was about to sell the company, agreed to hold off while his
son got a taste of the business. It felt good, Berkley said. He took over the
fledgling upholstery material line and helped make it the centerpiece of the
company, closing down the manufacture of material for men's ties, which faced
tough competition from low cost Korean manufacturers.
In 1999,
Weave Corp. began getting silk made in China. And in February of this year,
the company began selling "weatherwize," a new line of material that doesn't
fade in the sun, mostly for use in garden furniture.
Berkley
said his drive to keep pushing the company forward comes from "the
exhilaration of developing and selling product."
"I love
watching the looms weave," he said.
"I love
watching the fabrics being created. I go to the mill pretty
regularly."
Copyright
? 2005 North Jersey Media Group
Inc.