Brian Hirth’s work is key to the wardrobes of millions of teenagers and young adults across the U.S. But it’s unlikely any of them have heard of his Santa Ana company, Melmarc.
Melmarc is a screen printer founded by Hirth and his wife, Lori, in 1986 and named after their two children, Melanie and Marcus. The company began in a 1,200-square-foot office in Laguna Hills. Contracts from then-hot brands like Varnet and Irvine-based Stussy Inc. fueled the new firm’s growth, and it has been riding the surfwear wave since.
Now, Melmarc counts some of OC’s biggest surfwear makers and retailers among its customers, including Stussy, Irvine-based Billabong USA, Anaheim-based Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. and Huntington Surf & Sport. It has 230 employees and recently relocated to bigger digs with new equipment in Santa Ana. The company doesn’t disclose revenue figures, but said it does 24 million to 26 million impressions on about 18 million T-shirts and sweatshirts per year.
Yet most people in Orange County, let alone the rest of the U.S., haven’t heard of Melmarc.
“They’re not famous. They don’t have team riders that get the press,” said Frank Kaufman, partner at accounting firm Moss Adams LLP’s Irvine office, which has Melmarc as a client. “The way they get the credit is the elite in the industry use them and rely on them.”
Hirth said Melmarc is maintaining its business at a time when others in the apparel industry are struggling. That’s nothing to sneeze at, seeing as Melmarc faces the same challenges plaguing the rest of the industry: higher electricity costs, increased minimum wage rates and a sluggish retail environment exacerbated by consumer uncertainty in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
“It really takes a good businessman to stay on top of all the costs that are critical to what makes up their pricing formula,” said Tony Cherbak, a retail analyst in the consumer products group at Deloitte & Touche’s Costa Mesa office. “A few cents in this business matters.”
But Melmarc has an advantage: T-shirts and sweatshirts continue to sell.
That’s because they are the “bread and butter” for a lot of surfwear companies, according to Cherbak.
“It’s usually a very high-margin business for the screen printers’ customers,” he said.
Added Craig Purkis, assistant production manager at Stussy: “T-shirts and hats are what carry us through most seasons.”
Staple sellers like T-shirts, which cost less to make than more fashion-driven, cut-and-sew pieces, become more important in times like now when retail sales are down by 5% to 20%, according to Kaufman.
He said retailers, unable to predict the immediate future, are creating shorter windows for orders and deliveries. That means apparel manufacturers are under the gun to fill and deliver orders quickly, and screen-printed products fill that need, Kaufman added.
“The blanks are sitting ready and done, and it’s a matter of screening them,” Kaufman said. “That turn time can be less than a week.”
“I’ve seen a little dip (in orders) but not much. Nothing to get alarmed about,” Hirth said.
And though he acknowledges that the nature of the business gives Melmarc a “slight advantage” in a tough economic climate, Hirth said it doesn’t mean that he can “relax and fall asleep at the wheel.”
“I know I bank away a lot of pennies,” he said. “We’re still out there soliciting customers.”
Melmarc also retains a loyal clientele.
Stussy’s Purkis said his company sticks with Melmarc because it is “customer-oriented,” with excellent quality, fast turnarounds, and top-notch finishing and shipping departments. The manufacturer has about 30,000 to 40,000 T-shirts screen printed by Melmarc each month.
“Their new building has state-of-the-art equipment. Functionality is right on top,” Purkis said.
Paul Naude, Billabong USA president, agreed.
“They’re our screen printer of choice,” Naude said. “We have a great working relationship with them. They do some great work. They have a new state-of-the-art facility, which I think will only enhance their efficiency.”
Melmarc’s new 85,000-square-foot warehouse,unassuming from the outside,buzzes inside with mostly Hispanic men and women in different stations. Some mix thousands of Pantone colors. Others clean and dry screens. Still others operate pod-like machines that emboss designs on hundreds of thousands of T-shirts and sweatshirts.
And there’s a section for labeling, folding and prepping shipments near Melmarc’s expansive storage shelves. The company holds blank units for many of its customers, free of charge.
Demand is so high that Melmarc is running its machines 24 hours a day.
“(Melmarc has) really set up themselves to be a really good partner for larger and larger businesses,” said Diane Nance, vice president of sourcing at Pacific Sunwear. “When we started business with them, we had 125 stores and now we’re at 700 stores. And they’ve been able to keep up with that growth both financially and from a technological point of view.”
Like other screen printers, Melmarc considers itself a “silent company,” a behind-the-scenes-player in a competitive industry where prices, quality product and margins are everything.
“We’re looked at as a service you provide a real company,” Hirth said. “Our salesman calls us bottom feeders, in that everything trickles down to us.”
But Melmarc considers itself a “service” rather than just a place that provides product, Hirth said.
The company is “forward driven,” according to Hirth. He said he’s constantly improving technology and screen printing techniques, such as flocking (which produces a soft, felt-like logo or design), sonic welding and treatments.
To that end, Melmarc is developing a true research and development area in its warehouse, led by a technical creative person, that can help customers fine-tune looks.
“I consider us more embellishers than I do printers,” Hirth said. “The things you’re looking at now don’t even look like screen printing.”
And Melmarc doesn’t look like a typical screen printing shop. The offices are decorated like a swanky ad agency, with brightly colored walls, funky workstations, a Harley Davidson parked in the front lobby and a workout gym, complete with a personal trainer a few times a week.
The ambiance goes with Melmarc’s way of thinking.
“We understand what designing is all about,” Hirth said. “Whatever (customers) want they can find it here.” n
