Alan B. Gaylor (August 19, 1926 - April 15, 2008) is a Houston businessman known as the founder of Formal Al Clothing.
Video Alan B. Gaylor
Education
Gaylor was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and attended the University of Tulsa at G.I. Bill, graduated in 1950 with a degree in marketing and accounting. After graduation, he took a job with Acme Brick, who moved him to Topeka, Kansas. At that time, he and his brother-in-law Al Sankary started talking about going into business together.
Maps Alan B. Gaylor
Business interests
In 1957, Gaylor and his wife Lillian opened Al's official Al Wear's Al tuxedo store in downtown Houston, Texas. In 1966, after moving the tuxedo shop to a larger location nearby, Gaylors opened their first Bride 'n Formal store in the original Al room. Bride 'Formal offers medium-sized wedding dresses, bridesmaid dresses, and formal dresses, and both businesses create cross-referral synergies.
Gaylor and brother-in-law Al Sankary shared his business in 1978, with Gaylor retaining ownership of Houston-based Formal Al Apparel operations, while Sankary has operations based in the Dallas area. This division sometimes causes customer confusion, but lasts until 1999 (see below). In the late 1980s, Gaylor opened a new high-end bridal boutique, Louise Blum, named for her mother. He also started a new line of Ascot Tuksedo stores for expansion into an area served by Al's Dallas operations. In the early 1990s, Gaylor opened a high-end men's clothing store, A.B. Graham, named for his first grandchild. She also expanded her wedding business again with Bridal Warehouse, a wedding dress shop designed to serve price buyers. In 1995, Bridal Warehouse and Bride 'n Formal merged into BridesMart, offering custom-made and off-the-rack bride shopping in one location. The synergy between the bridal business and the tuxedo business continues, with the BridesMart location usually located near (or even next to) the locations of Formal Wear and Ascot Tuxedos Al.
Formal Al's outfit has always been a family business, and 1999 saw families come together again when Formal Al Gaylor Clothing from Houston bought Dallas operations from Sankary. At this point, the combined business includes about 120 Al Formal Clothing, Ascot Tuxedo, and BridesMart locations in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. In 2006, several consolidations and spin-off bridal divisions have reduced the number of stores to between 90 and 100. After expansion into Arkansas and purchases of Official Clothes. Neat from Colorado, Formal Al's Clothing now includes five states with more than 100 stores..
After more than 50 years building tuxedo kingdom for his family, Mr. Gaylor surrendered his presidency to his son Stuart in 2001. Ever since he took control, the company continued to grow. Al is building more stores in new markets and has plans for more in the near future.
On the morning of April 15, 2008, the person who set the standard for tuxedo lease left this earth a much better place. Alan Gaylor, a devoted husband, father, grandfather and friend, transformed what began as a dream into a tuxedo kingdom. He is best remembered for his generous nature and great passion for life. The motto of his life is "If you're going to do something, do it right!" Alan applies this to every aspect of his life and instills the same attitude in his 4 children, and 12 grandchildren.
"Our business since the first day was built by providing excellent customer service and quality goods at affordable prices, and we continue to build our business on this premise today," Mr. Gaylor.
Awards and acknowledgments
- In 1992, Gaylor was a finalist for Ernst & amp; Young Entrepreneurs of the Year award.
- In 1995, she was presented with the International Formal Clothes Association's Black Tie Award in recognition of her lifetime contribution to the men's formal clothing industry.
Business philosophy
Gaylor believes that goodwill, excellent customer service, and effort are critical to business success. "The most distant person in the business world is the hardest working person," he said (Waller, 1999).
References
Anacker, Dolores (1991), "Head & amp; Shoulders Above the Competition", Majalah DBA , Houston, Texas
Ho, Rodney (2000), "Family Faction in Formal Clothing: Two different operating styles end with one company", Wall Street Journal , New York, New York
Houston Business Journal, (2000). "50 Best Family Owned Businesses"
"Black Tie Awardee". International Formal Apparel Association. Archived from the original in 2006-09-23 . Retrieved 2006-12-08 .
Waller, Mary (1999), "All Dressing and Where to Go", Dialogue, University of Tulsa Magazine , Tulsa, Oklahoma: University of Tulsa
External links
- Al's Formal Wear website
- Ascot Formal Wear website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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