Darn It! Inc. is a company that solves other businesses’ problems with messed-up apparel orders, distribution difficulties and warehousing needs. Their slogan is “Your problem is our business”. Darn It!, which started with a handful of employees, now has 110 full-time workers in 175,00-square-foot rented space but the company will be moving to its new 314,000 square foot factory in the next one to two years.
The move marks a homecoming of sorts for Jeffrey Glassman, president of Darn It!, and his father, Norman Glassman. It was to 630 Belleville Ave. that their relatives first came to New Bedford in the 1930s to work in the apparel business and held jobs at New Bedford Manufacturing Co., makers of pajamas for men and women.
Darn It!, by contrast, manufactures virtually nothing. But it is equipped to do almost any phase of apparel manufacturing, repair, packing and shipping and its employees are highly-skilled apparel workers. “Apparel refurbishment” is one of its three lines of business and involves fixing, sewing, labeling and correcting manufacturing errors as well as cleaning up other kinds of apparel-related problems for a range of manufacturers.
Because its customers do not want to be known for sending products that have errors to be remade or fixed up at Darn It!, the company refuses to disclose names in its customer base. The unnamed companies are household names — especially for middle- and higher-income shoppers — and range from high-end outdoor gear makers to well known ladies clothing companies and makers of European men’s clothing.
In addition to apparel refurbishment, Darn It! has two other business lines: warehousing-distribution and an embroidery department. “We sell space and labor,” Jeffrey Glassman said. “Our edge is our employees and our knowledge of the business.” Some employees at Darn It! Inc. have been with the Glassmans since Ronnie Manufacturing — more than 30 years.
Jeffrey said he anticipates hiring additional employees to support the company’s growth and its new operations in the Belleville Avenue building, as soon as September. He said Darn It! Inc. has two new customers already on board. He said the company has benefitted from the Internet and advertises online and through direct mail. Networking through existing customers is actually the most effective method, he said.
Read more about the Glassman’s business at South Coast Today.
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