¤ Corporate Apparel Source Company Clothing & Apparel

Scott and Helen Ilnicky’s home-based, uniform apparel business was bursting on the seams.

So the 2 expanded Haberdasher Corporate Apparel from their cramped home off of Malvern Avenue to a 2,000-square-foot space on Dabney Road in Henrico County.

Revenue is up about 50 percent from last year, and Ilnicky said he and his wife desperately needed the additional room.

“We had product throughout many of the dining room and lounge,” he said. “Our house was becoming a warehouse.”

Haberdasher sells uniforms, work- and logo-wear to businesses. The corporate sells formal work uniforms akin to suits and ties, scrubs and lab coats, and more casual work-wear similar to polos and khakis.

Ilnicky, a former S&K Menswear executive, launched the business in 2009 earlier than the Richmond-based clothing company went belly-up.

Helen Ilnicky, 50, said moving the operation out in their home was a sticky decision.

“I don’t love to pay money for anything, so if i’ll invest in rent I’m desperate to not be living in a warehouse anymore,” she said.

The company now handles about 200 accounts, up from 75 last year. A few of the clients are assisted living facilities, hospitals and restaurants in Richmond.  (BizSense covered the startup in 2010, and you’ll read more of the background in that story here.)

Ilnicky, 50, said he’s been ready to grow through consistent business with their existing customers, adding new accounts and by local businesses increasing the scale in their staffs.

“Companies have hired more people and after they hire people they must put them in uniform,” he said.

“Hospitals and assisted living facilities are incredible targets because they’ve people doing lots of different jobs and we will provide absolutely anything for them.”

Helen Ilnicky said that during 2010, the corporate won a bid for just a few state contracts. It landed the Virginia Museum of excellent Arts, the dep. of Mines, Minerals and effort in Big Stone Gap and the Woodrow Wilson Rehab Center in Fishersville.

“We’re hoping to grow that state contract business,” she said.

Haberdasher is not the only company dressing area employees. ARAMARK, a tremendous within the uniform-provider scene, has a location in Henrico. Best Uniforms, another company that gives law enforcement and EMS wear, also has an office in Richmond on Tomlyn Street.

The husband and wife team have a staff of 5 and said they hope to grow the corporate another 50 percent in 2012.

The Ilnickys hope to snag a countrywide account or an organization that has employees beyond the East Coast.

Amy David is a BizSense reporter and covers restaurants, retail, advertising/marketing/media and startups. Amy graduated from Radford University.