Hartmarx Corp. expects to sew its last stitch of men's clothing at the former M. Wile Co.
plant sometime in December, snapping a thread of Buffalo history that goes back more than a century. About 120 garment workers will lose their jobs as production winds down at the factory on Elmwood Avenue, the company said. The Chicago-based company is ending production of Kenneth Cole menswear, the mainstay of the Buffalo plant, he said.
Sales of the brand, made by Hartmarx under license from the designer, have been disappointing. Material-cutting operations in Buffalo will cease by the end of November in a previously announced move. Sewing operations are expected to follow in December, ending garment production here, Patel said.
The decision to end sewing isn't final, but the outlook is not good, he said. Hartmarx will keep its warehouse, with about 100 jobs, at the giant facility at 2020 Elmwood Ave. The M.
Wile factory outlet store there will also remain open. Before being named Hartmarx's chief executive in 1992, Patel was based in Buffalo as head of the company's Intercontinental Branded Apparel unit. The union's been cooperative and productive, I have no complaints about any of that, he said.
It's not an incremental cost issue. The product is going away. Production workers are represented by UNITE-HERE, formerly the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees.
Union officials were unavailable to comment. The origins of the business date to 1877, when German immigrant Mayer Wile began making men's suits in Buffalo and delivering them in a horse-drawn wagon. Hart, Schaffner Marx bought M.
Wile Co. in 1969 and continued to operate it as a separate unit, making suits under the Wile name and other brands. The suit-maker's presence in Buffalo has been shrinking for decades, as consumers flocked to imported clothing and adopted more casual styles.
At its centennial in 1977, M. Wile Co. employed 2,200 people at its three area plants - on Goodell Street and Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo, and on East Chestnut Street in Dunkirk.
We're still busy, then-president Lawrence Gunzberg said, as imported suits flooded the U.S. market, but for how long?
A series of consolidation moves closed the Dunkirk and the Goodell Street plants by 1999, concentrating production on Elmwood Avenue. Gunzberg, grandson of founder Mayer Wile, said he lost touch with the business after retiring in 1981. Reached at his home in Nashville, he said he doesn't think any of the family remain in the garment business.
At about the time he retired, the M. Wile name was dropped from products, which continued to be made for other brands including Johnny Carson and Nino Cerruti. The founder's name continues at the M.
Wile factory outlet store and at the company's former base at 77 Goodell St., referred to as the M. Wile building.
Hartmarx, the largest men's suit maker in the United States, sells apparel under 19 brands such as Hart Schaffner Marx, Hickey Freeman, Sansabelt and Palm Beach. Hit by department store consolidation, Hartmarx reported sharply lower quarterly profits of less than $1 million in September, which shocked Wall Street and rattled its stock price. The company is struggling to reduce its reliance on department store sales, shifting to online retailing and newly acquired women's clothing lines.
It has not been a fun year. I feel like Buffalo, Patel said, referring to the battering of the Oct. 12-13 snow storm.
Imported garments continue to crowd U.S. makers, with 7.
9 million imported men's and boy's wool suits in 2005, up from 6.7 million in 2004, according to the International Trade Administration. China is the largest supplier at 1.
6 million suits, followed closely by Canada. By value, however, Italy is the largest foreign supplier, selling $151 million worth of men's suits here in 2005.
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