A longtime Spokane garment manufacturer that now employs just one-fifth of the 450 workers it once did says it has righted itself against tall odds and tough overseas competition and again is on solid financial ground.


Joe Doohan, president of KL Mfg. Co., which specializes in making outer garments and sports apparel, says the business probably will never again approach its employment and revenue heights of about a decade ago. It has stabilized, though, he says, and he hopes to get back up to 100 employees soon from 90 currently.


We compete by being able to offer a quick turn time, speak English, and by being available to make last-minute changes, he says. The companys major competitors are in China.


KL once had operations in Post Falls and Chewelah in addition to its current lone facility at 2726 N. Monroe, and Doohan says its revenue peaked at $5 million in the mid-1990s. It likely would have doubled that figure if its customers didnt routinely supply fabrics and trims for the garments KL makes for them, leaving KL mostly with labor-only revenues, instead of the combined revenues from labor and materials seen in most other industries, he says.


After a more than decade-long downward trend, revenue has stabilized at about $3 million over the past two years, says Doohan. He doesnt project any significant jump above that figure in the immediate years ahead because of the many changes impacting the domestic garment manufacturing industry.


Cheap foreign labor, especially in China, have caused many U.S. garment companies, such as Seattle-based Cascade West Inc., which employed nearly twice as many people as KL did in the mid-1990s, to close their doors.


In spite of another major setback triggered by the terrorist attacks of 2001, KL has survived by landing accounts with a small number of companies and providing them fast, quality service with a short turnaround time, Doohan says. He says the companys flexibility to handle small, complex orders is a key to its survival.


Underscoring the challenge that U.S. clothing makers face from Chinese competitors, a recent article in Business Week magazine says that employees of garment, electronics, and other export factories in that country typically work more than 80 hours a week and make only 42 cents an hour.


In contrast, KL employees average working about 45 hours each week, and are paid between $8.10 and $12 an hour, depending on their experience and productivity, says Doohan.


Doohan, age 43, whos been working at the family-owned business since he was 13 years old, says competition from China, though big and ongoing, is just one factor that has hurt the domestic garment industry. He says the 2001 terrorist attacks spooked all retailers, and the subsequent anthrax scare had an even greater dampening effect on KLs revenues.


Largely due to competition from China, the domestic garment industry was shrinking before the terrorist attacks, he says, and because of that slowdown, KLs 23-year-old, 22,000-square-foot plant in Post Falls that employed 120 workers closed in 2000.


He says 65 percent of KLs revenue comes from accounts with customers who sell products via catalogs, and the anthrax-triggered mistrust of postal deliveries that followed the terrorist attacks forced most catalog retailers to scale back significantly.


That caused orders to dwindle at KL, and by early 2002, KL closed its 24,000-square-foot facility in Chewelah. That put another 110 people out of work and left KL operating solely out of its old, two-story, 36,000-square-foot headquarters here.


Originally a maker of womens clothing, KL has expanded its product line over the years to include outerwear such as jackets and pants made of Gore-Tex and fleece, plus sports apparel such as basketball, soccer, and track-and-field clothing for customers around the world, Doohan says.


KL fills orders as small as 300 garments for companies such as Redmond, Wash.-based Eddie Bauer Inc. and catalog retailer Sierra Trading Post Inc., of Cheyenne, Wyo., which sometimes want replicas made of garments theyve discontinued, he says.


Doohan plans to bump KLs labor force back up to 100 workers mostly by placing more emphasis on embroidering the garments it makes. He says hes considering hiring a salesman full time to promote that segment of the business.


In a concession to international sales pressures, KL has begun generating additional revenue by forwarding some production work to a contract manufacturer in Mexico. That business arrangement allows some of KLs customers that dont require the quality of garment made in Spokane to still order lower-priced clothing through KL. Doohan says hes studying the possibility of developing similar arrangements with other Western Hemisphere contract manufacturers, but wont export work to other continents where time-zone and language differences present added difficulties.


KLs customer base is small, at 14 customers.


Right now, the sales force consists of me, Doohan says. We dont need a lot of customers to keep the factory busy.


He says a few of KLs customers are big, internationally known concerns, but they wont allow him to publicize their names.


Customers he can name include Macedon, N.Y.-based Terry Precision Cycling, a catalog seller of womens-only cycling clothing, and Roadrunner Sports Inc., of San Diego, which sells mens and womens shoes and athletic apparel.


An example of how KL fills the needs of larger companies is one contract it has with Eddie Bauer, Doohan says. He says many consumers in Japan are eager to pay top dollar for garments made in America, and theres a demand there for some Eddie Bauer garments, especially jackets that Eddie Bauer hasnt made for 30 or 40 years. Eddie Bauer hires KL to reproduce those jackets just as they were made originally. Doohan says such a jacket can be made here for about $110 and easily sell for more than $400 in Japan.


Doohan says a key to KLs viability is its ability to take on smaller, complex orders, and to fill them quicklyin some cases in as little as one week after KL receives the materials to construct the garments.


The niche garments that KL makes are only possible because of the skilled work force at KL, he says. Theres not a lot of companies that can do the variety of things we do at one location, he asserts.


In contrast to earlier years when one seamstress might make an entire garment, as many as 12 people might work on a cycling jacket that could require a dozen setting changes on a sewing machine, 15 different sewing operations, and 21 panels of fabric, Doohan says.


KL was launched in 1932 by Hazel Kemmery, who named the business after her daughter, Kathleen Louise. What began as a small maker of womens apparel expanded its product lines during World War II when the U.S. government ordered down coats for soldiers based in Alaska, Doohan says. The company remained small until after the Doohan family bought it in 1968, doubled the size of the building on Monroe in the mid-1970s, and began exploring other markets.


Contact Rocky Wilson at (509) 344-1264 or via e-mail at rockyw@spokanejournal.com.