Made In Chicago: Zengeler Cleaners
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Not many family businesses have the longevity of Zengeler Cleaners on Chicago's North Shore.
"We are now in our sixth generation," said Tom Zengeler, CEO. "My great great grandfather started the business in 1857."
John Zengeler, an immigrant from Germany, opened his steam and dye shop at 208 South Clark Street. WBBM's Lisa Fielding reports.
"He was a chemist originally," Zengeler said. "In the 1800's they dyed clothes, so being a chemist he was able to get perfect dyes for his customers. You could only steam and dye clothes at that time."
The business was destroyed by the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Zengeler rebuilt his shop on Cottage Grove and Prairie. but soon after the turn of the century, he moved the business to Lake Forest and added a dry cleaning department.
"His clientele grew as people from Chicago moved North along the North Shore, and so did my great grandfather," he said. "He would bring clothes back and forth from Lake Forest and Chicago. In the 1900's, they came up with a petroleum based cleaning solution that's how we were, then, able to process clothes, cleaning at that time. That originated in Europe and then came to the states and shortly after, that's how we started cleaning clothes."
Now, Tom runs the businesses with help from his brothers passed down from their father and his father before him.
"The business continued to change from generation to generation. In the 1960's, my father became involved in the business. He had two sisters," Zengeler said. "He stayed in the business and we had six kids in my family. Now, myself and two of my brothers are working with my father in the business. 160 years later. I'm the fifth generation and I have four children."
Zengeler now employs more than 100 employees at eight stores. Inside their largest production facility in Libertyville, cleaning, pressing, tailoring and pick up and delivery.
"We use state of the art equipment available in our facilities," Zengeler said. "We reinvest in technology constantly. Everything now has a bar code on it which began around two years ago."
Zengeler said the business has always been environmentally friendly.
"We've always cleaned in a 100 percent natural cleaning solution," he said. "We've never strayed from that. We have garment bags, so they don't have to have plastic on their clothes. We encourage them to bring back the garment bags to reuse."
Over the years, the business has experienced its share of ups and downs. In the 1960's, more women entered the workplace and in turn, they saw an increase in business.
"We saw many more women's pieces and that gradually increased more and more," he said.
In the 70's, the washable, polyester trend meant a downturn in business.
"Polyester is washable and people thought it was the end to the dry cleaning business," he laughed, "Luckily that trend didn't last very long."
Zengeler said their biggest hit: when Illinois' smoking ban went into affect.
"Oh yeah, that hit us harder than the recession in 2008," Zengeler said. "People weren't bringing their clothes in as much because there wasn't anymore smoke in bars and restaurants. We were hurt by the smoking ban."
But in the end, Zengeler said people still want their delicate fabrics taken care of and their clothes to stay looking like new.
"There are still many fabrics out there that are dry cleaning only," he said. "The majority of our clientele have very expensive garments that need attention to detail and attention to the dry cleaning process that's being done the right way. We've always wanted to return clothes to our customers in the same condition as if they would have bought it from the store."
The 9,000 square foot facility on Park Street in Libertyville houses several washers, driers, steamers and a constant assembly line with specialized machines for fabric type.
In the back, an old fur vault, a temperature controlled double decker room that used to clean and store furs.
"This is the fur vault," Zengeler said. "It looks just like a bank vault with a giant spin lock. People don't wear real fur so much anymore so we use this room for storage now but at one time, we stored millions of dollars of fur coats in there."
Zengeler Cleaners is also involved in giving back to the community. Every year, they take part in the Glass Slipper Project, a Chicago-area volunteer organization that gives high school girls the opportunity to experience prom.
"Just last Spring, we collected and donated more than 5,000 prom dresses," he said. "We just collected several bags of coats, 4,186 coats for the Coats For Veterans program and that grows every year."
Three generations still work in the stores. Tom's 86-year-old father Bob still stops by every day and Tom's daughter Kristine works there in the summer.
Will she be the sixth generation to carry on the family name?
"Hopefully my children are interested. It's here for them. It's a great, rewarding business. But no pressure," he laughed.
Zengeler Cleaners has survived the Civil War, 1871 Chicago Fire, two World Wars and the Great Depression and continues to serve thousands in the North Shore.
