Casino Uniform Maker Buys OC Silk Screener
By SHERRI CRUZ
Huntington Beach-based Premier Uniform Supply has bought Fat Mike’s, a silk-screen clothing company also based in Surf City.
Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
Premier, which makes company uniforms mainly for casinos, moved operations to Fat Mike’s 3,000-square-foot facility at 7238 Heil Ave. The uniform supplier has remade about a third of the space into a showroom.
“It was rundown and ugly,” said Neal Weisman, president and founder of Premier, of the new space prior to the remodel.
Premier had about $1.3 million in sales last year. The company, which has 12 workers, expects sales to grow to $4 million to $5 million this year.
It plans to tap Fat Mike’s 300-some customers to get new business. Premier, which has a Las Vegas-area office in Henderson to work with its casino customers, also sells to restaurants, theaters, pool companies, barbershops and the Henderson Nevada Chamber of Commerce.
Premier, which competes with large uniform companies such as Ohio-based Cintas Corp., said it specializes in making custom uniforms. Custom-made uniforms take six to 12 weeks to make, Weisman said.
Stylish uniforms are in: “Everybody’s pushing fashion,” Weisman said.
Premier, for example, makes Italian scarves for the VIP service unit at MGM Mirage’s Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas. Retro bowling shirts also are popular.
Fat Mike’s silk-screening business allows Premier to do more promotions and in-house design work, such as corporate logos, Weisman said. One customer recently ordered silk-screened underwear to give away in Las Vegas on Valentine’s Day. A kickboxer ordered 144 shirts for his schools.
Weisman began selling to the casinos in 1989. Premier’s first customer was the Mirage in Las Vegas. He said he was about 23 years old when he met with the uniform manager at the Mirage.
“I walked in wearing a yellow suit, cocky, young, arrogant,” he said.
Since then he’s picked up other casino clients such as MGM’s Treasure Island Resort & Casino and the Palms Casino Resort.
In the business of casino uniforms, contracts expire every year or two and no single vendor supplies the entire casino, Weisman said. Premier said it recently bid on a contract for the Mirage’s buffet servers.
Premier’s staff designed an all-white shirt and mandarin-style neck collar with black piping around the neckline, a vest and a long apron to cover the buffet servers’ pants. A typical casino contract is worth $50,000 to $100,000, Weisman said.
