COLMAR, Pennsylvania — Stout beat the effects of a devastating fire last year but continues to grow in spite of a U.S. market which needs to recover from lackluster housing starts, says Mark Rickers, the fabric buyer for this 85 year old national fabric wholesaler doing about $20 million in sales.

“Lack of sales last July as a result of the fire hurt us but we completely recovered by August and managed to meet 2010 sales levels,” he said. He sees a five percent sales gain in 2012 only because the family held company reacted quickly to the fire damage and was able to contract a New York computer services firm to handle the customer traffic. Rickers and his two partners, brothers Bill and Bob Greenawalt along with customer service and the rest of the staff worked out of a trailer until the offices were restored.

In spite of the fire which destroyed the 25,000 square foot corporate office and warehouse interior; one third of the inventory and all of the computer and telephone systems, Stout has moved into newly rebuilt quarters this spring without missing a beat according to Rickers, one of the three principals in the firm.

Stout purchases multipurpose and drapery lines from the New York converters: Swavelle, Richloom, Covington and P/Kaufmann after transforming itself into a decorative jobber 20 years ago, Rickers said. U.S. mills like Sunbury, Valdese, American Silk and Weave supply the upholstery lines . It also sells trimmings from Classical Elements, Bellagio and Marcovaldo.

Stout is about one third upholstery and two thirds decorative fabrics today, Rickers said. Stout specializes in mid to upper end lines and feels it is gaining share of the business even if the overall business isn’t growing. Customer service makes the difference. Stout can deliver to California within four days, he said.

Rickers relies on his suppliers for imports or works through agents who represent overseas lines. Aside from Showtime in High Point twice a year and New York trips, Rickers doesn’t do much traveling overseas.  He relies on his local U.S. vendors to bring him imported fabrics. For that reason, Stout is not well known outside of the USA. However, three years ago, Stout named Harmontex  its distributor in China.

“We have to plan ahead when we make our books for the30- 40 programs we do each year. It is especially challenging to deal with 14 week delivery from India and China. We order in 2,000 new sku’s out of the 14,000 we offer yearly. “We ask for three year continuity on all of our lines. We find that all of us are keeping programs longer. It used to be three to four years in the collection and now it’s four to five years. “ Barbara Godwin, formerly with Calico Corners, is an important design consultant for Stout and works with Rickers closely on designing the collections.

Stout credits its 30 employees with keeping the company going after the fire. “Their response was incredible. They hand rolled fabrics for shipment and wrote orders by hand. We also want to thank our competitors for telling our customers we were out of the business after the fire,” said Bill, who expects to tackle hospitality sales this year, a new market for Stout.

“We have replaced all of our systems with the most modern up-to-date equipment available,” said Bob Greenawalt, president and director of operations and finance. Bob said he flipped a coin with his other two partners and he won the title of president. “We’re not big with titles in this company,” he explained. The upgrade included IBM virtual servers and a VOIP telephone system which operates like a mobile phone system. Even before the fire, Stout had embraced web sales spearheaded by John Greenawalt, Bob’s son.

“Web sales are increasing. Web became especially important with the economic slowdown.  Our site is for decorators only—not the consumer,” John said. ”We hope that the web will reduce the need to sample because sample books are so expensive,” he said. John feels the web is especially good for selling novelty items. “Our customers can use it at night to order 8x8 or 27 inch square samples. Our  national sales force of 40 reps  get  credit for any sale in their territory.”

In addition to John, the next generation of management includes his sister Kate and the Rickers brothers Mark Daniel (MD) and Kyle. Stout was started in 1927 by Stober Harry and Charles Stout. Harry’s son in law Jack Greenawalt soon joined them in what was originally an upholstery supply house to the reupholstery trade. Mark Daniel, 34, with Stout for 11 years; Kyle, 28; Kate, 31; and John, 29 represent the fourth generation in the same family. “All of us spent our summers here growing up licking stamps and talking fabrics around the dinner table,” Kyle explained.  F&FIStout Brothers Partners: Stout Brothers Partners: Bob Greenawalt (first row extreme left) with brother Bill Greenawalt and Mark Rickers; John Greenawalt (end of first row right) with his sister Kate Greenawalt on top row; Kate and John are Bill’s kids. Mark Rickers’ two boys are: Kyle (black leather coat) and MD (Mark Daniel) at top of pyramid.