Hardwick Clothes is closing out its historic run as a men’s clothing manufacturer and opening a new chapter as a retailer in a space near Hamilton Place mall this weekend.
“We’re transitioning from being a manufacturer to being a retailer,” said Lynn DeVault, the president of Jones Management and the CEO of Hardwick Clothes. “We’ve got plenty of inventory to put in the store, and if we run out we can have someone sell us some more.”
The existing inventory of men’s sports coats, slacks and suits is left over from the last days of Hardwick’s operation under the ownership of Allan Jones, who bought the company out of bankruptcy for $1.9 million in 2014.
In December, Jones sold the equipment and leased Hardwick’s manufacturing facility in Cleveland, Tennessee, to Puerto Rico Industries for the Blind. The nonprofit that trains and employs people with disabilities planned to add 100 people to the company’s workforce of 200 to manufacture Army uniforms under a government contract, but it’s not clear where the new owners are in that process.
“I understand they’re making every effort to do that, but I don’t know how many people they have hired,” DeVault said. “We don’t have anything to do with that.”
The hope when they sold the manufacturing business was that the employee would be able to keep their jobs, and that has largely been the case, DeVault said.
“All the employees were hired except one,” she said.
Bruce Bellusci, who came on as CEO of Hardwick after Jones bought the business, left the company soon after the sale to Puerto Rico Industries for the Blind, he said. Officials with the manufacturing facility in Cleveland did not respond to emails or phone calls seeking comment.
Coming soon
When: Saturday will be the grand opening of the first retail location for Hardwick Clothes, with refreshments from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and the opportunity to enter to win a $600 store creditWhere: In the Hamilton Corner shopping center on Gunbarrel Road
Hardwick was founded in 1880 as the Cleveland Woolen Mills by C.L. Hardwick, and the company was the oldest manufacturer of tailor-made clothing in the United States.
Jones, the founder and CEO of the nation’s biggest privately owned payday lender Check Into Cash, invested in upgrading and expanding the Hardwick manufacturing business after he bought it in 2014. But the attempted turnaround proved heavy lifting, DeVault said.
“We were losing a lot of money, and he had invested a lot of money,” DeVault said of the decision to sell the manufacturing business. Jones still owns Hardwick Clothes, which means the brand name, the existing inventory and the online presence, DeVault said.
“We are in the business of selling inventory in a retail environment,” she said. “We are not manufacturing anything.”
The lease at the space at Hamilton Corner on Gunbarrel Road is a six-month lease, which will give the store enough time to sell the existing inventory and for the owners to decide if brick-and-mortar retail is a viable long-term strategy, DeVault said.
“We’re hopeful that this store will be a success and we’ll continue in that location,” she said.
Contact Mary Fortune at mfortune@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow her on Twitter at @maryfortune.