It is a remarkable achievement for any company to make it for a century and a quarter. Perhaps it is even more remarkable for a family-owned business to do so and remain family-owned. But the company we now know as Mayer Fabrics – owned and operated by the Mayer family is marking its 125th anniversary this year. Rob Mayer is the current president and we linked up on Zoom last week to talk about the 125-year journey of the company.
Bob Beck (BB):
Tell us about the founding of your company and some of the important mileposts in its history.
Rob Mayer (RM):
My great grandfather was George L. Paetz and in 1897 he founded George L. Paetz & Sons. In the beginning he was a mattress maker so he stocked the fabric and trimmings for making mattresses. At some point he started selling some of the fabric and trimmings to people who were re-upholstering buggy seats. When the buggy business died he started selling upholstery fabric to the auto industry and from there he got into the residential textile business. I’m not sure exactly when, but at some point he exited the mattress business altogether and just concentrated on the residential fabric side.
For the first 60 some years the company did ok considering that it survived two world wars and the depression, but in the early 60’s when my father Richard and his cousin, Harold, formed a partnership and bought out their parents, aunts and uncles – all the other shareholders, the company was only doing about quarter of a million dollars of business after being around for nearly 65 years. So, my father told his mom that he wanted to be doing $1,000,000 in 5 years and she said, ‘Don’t talk silly, Richard.’ But they did it.
The next turning point was 1982 when my father’s partner passed away. Three years later my father bought out Harold’s wife. In 1988 we started a new division named Mayer Contract Fabrics. Up to that point the business was still George L. Paetz & Sons primarily selling to the residential market.
In the mid to late 80s, when most people looked at companies selling residential textiles they thought their products wouldn’t perform in the contract world. We wanted to establish ourselves as a player in the contract market, so we inserted ‘contract’ into our name to let people know that we were exiting the residential market and focusing on the commercial side. So by 1988 even though we were still primarily a regional player, we were definitely making nice headway and growing.
In 1999 we were well enough established in the industry that we did a rebrand and took ‘Contract’ out of our name and just became Mayer Fabrics. Then in 2001 we acquired a small boutique business called Lucia Costa Textiles. That was a turning point in product strategy that led us out of the real industrial look and budget offering into a more decorative offering. The acquisition of Lucia Costa and rebranding we did with that brand led us to a full rebranding of Mayer Fabrics in 2004-2005. That’s when we really revamped our product offering to provide a more decorative aesthetic, rather than the sort of workhorse textiles we had been providing up to that point.
So, looking back over the sweep of the whole 125 years, most of the changes that have brought us from a company making mattresses to the company we are now, have happened between the mid-1990s and today. But one of the things that was instilled in my brothers and me growing up in the business was that we should never forget, ‘Where you came from and how you got there.’ To us that means valuing the people we have who work with us in the company; they are a major part of that. But it also has huge implications for how you do business, how you treat customers, how you work with your customers. So it’s a guiding philosophy looking both internally and externally.
Looking back I have to give credit to my great grandfather, of course for founding the company and to him and my grandfather for guiding it through two world wars and the great depression, but my father gets a lot of the credit for growing the company in the residential business and then having the vision to change direction to the contract market, positioning us to be what we are today. Then my brothers and I picked up the ball and we’re still running hard to raise the bar – grow and improve the company every day.
Most family-owned companies don’t even make it to the third generation and I’m proud of what we, the fourth generation have accomplished so far and we are not resting on our laurels. Then we have my older brother Rick’s son, Bryan running IT and my daughter Maggie running supply chain and procurement, so we’ve got a great start to contributions from the fifth generation. And we are continuing to evolve the brand and our products in line with emerging trends in the market, while also working to expand into international markets. We still have a lot of growth potential in North America, but we also see additional potential overseas.
BB:
What are some of the trends you’re seeing?
RM:
As I’ve said, we focus on the contract market in all its sectors: office, hospitality, healthcare, education and government. Each segment has some specific requirements, but recently we see a major trend toward what we think of as crossover between the contract and residential segments. In terms of aesthetics – pattern, color and “hand,” there’s a lot of movement on the contract side toward what we would have traditionally thought of as more residential. And on the functional side we see movement among residential manufacturers to the kind of functional, performance characteristics formerly associated with contract fabrics.
In the contract sector the crossover started with changes in workplace design led by the tech industry out in California toward a more relaxed, comfortable ‘resimercial’ feel. In the residential sector changes in the way people live at home are driving the demand for more cleanable and stain resistant functionality. And in healthcare, even though there’s an ongoing need for exceptional cleanability and durability, we’re seeing a trend away from the institutional look and feel of the past.
BB:
At NeoCon I was impressed with your product launches. Tell us about them.
RM:
I think we had an outstanding NeoCon in terms of new products, so I want to give credit to Kristy Stroh, who leads our product development team, and what she accomplished working with Kimberly Frost, our outside designer, for this year’s new products. Two of our strongest NeoCon launches, Arcade and Carousel are designed to work together.
Arcade is a hyper-durable (a million double rubs) polyurethane polycarbonate coated fabric that emulates a woven textile. Its subtle textural design resembles a tone-on-tone glazing effect and its beautiful range of hues was developed to be the solid complement to the complex colors and pattern of Carousel.
Carousel is a digitally printed polyurethane polycarbonate textile that is exclusive to Mayer Fabrics. It’s a fun, clever combination of printed shapes and layered design elements, that emulate a multi-colored woven textile. Colors are juxtaposed to produce harmonious yet versatile combinations. Carousel is perfect for the healthcare, senior living, hospitality and education markets.
BB:
I wish you the greatest success, and here’s to making it all the way through the next 125.