Tales from the Morgue: Future looks bright for Farah at fifty

UPDATE: Helraizer asks:

TRISH, WHEN DID FARAH CLOSE DOWN AND WHY ?

Here is an articles to answer the question

The Farah building has been in the news lately. I found this article on the 50th anniversary of Farah Manufacturing Co. The article is really long so I will post the link to the photos here.

March 15, 1970

For fifty years, the histories of the City of El Paso and the Farah Manufacturing Company have been interlocked in identical patterns of growth and progress.

The Farah story began in October, 1920, when Mansour and Hana Farah left their retail business in Las Cruces to establish their small clothing business in El Paso. Mansour Farah had made up his mind to be, not only a merchandiser, but also a producer of merchandise.

They started small, renting a 25 by 30 foot room on San Francisco Street near the Union Depot. The little plant prospered, and in April, 1925, Mansour Farah moved his headquarters to a larger South Oregon Street location.

Shortly thereafter, the firm received its biggest order yet, an order to produce 1,400 shirts. The shirts were produced and placed ready for shipment the following day, an easy target for thieves who managed to remove the shirts that night. Thus, the largest order suddenly became the greatest loss in the company’s youthful existence. It was the character of Mansour Farah that moved him to take this overwhelming blow and, without delay, proceed to start over from scratch. The 1,400 shirts were made and shipped as promised.

37-Cent Shirts

A decade later, the company was producing chambray work shirts priced at 37 cents, denim pants at 50 cents a pair, bib overalls for workmen and an array of functional items priced suitably to the dire depression economics of most of the country’s consumers.

The year 1930 saw still another expansion and another company relocation. In that year, the company moved to a larger, newer building at 104 South Leon, the building which later housed the El Paso Red Cross field office.

By now, two younger Farahs were taking an active interest in the firm: James, at 14, and William, aged 11, were spending after-school hours and Saturdays at the plant.

The growing firm was by then employing 12 to 15 women on the production lines. Mrs. Hana Farah recounts that all plant machinery drew power from a single line shaft; when a belt broke, all production stopped. Mrs. Farah also introduced what may have been the first of the company’s new massive program of employee benefits; she installed a radio in the sewing rooms to proved music for her staff.

James Joins In

While still attending El Paso High School, James began handling paperwork in the company offices while his father, cigar in mouth, served as designer, cutter, salesman and janitor for the plant.

Then, in 1934, the plant faced a crisis and a decision. Federal prison authorities began flooding the market with convict-produced 25-cent shirts. Mansour Farah sent James out to buy a couple of the prison products – and decided then and there to leave the shirt business and turn to making work pants.

By 1934, Mansour Farah decided to move his plant to what seemed to be a more promising location, the old El Paso Times Building at 300 San Francisco St. He rented a section of the third floor for $35 a month, a rental price typical f those depression-ridden days.

The company was destined to grow and plan for the future at this new location; it was to serve as the Farah home for 17 years.

Just one year later, 1937, the company faced its greatest crisis: death claimed the gentle, soft-spoken, hard-working Mansour Farah at the untimely age of 52.

James Farah, just turning 21, stepped into the breach, amazing fellow workers with his ability to handle problems in any part of the plant, stepping easily from cutting to sewing rooms, from business office to shipping rooms.

Management Training

William Farah, 18 at the time, left his classes at University of Texas at El Paso (then the College of Mines) to play a full-time role in the plant’s operations.

William displayed an inborn knack for repairing and improving machinery at the plant; his innate talents were spurred by his association with Farah’s machinist, Tom McCoy, who also had something of a reputation as an inventor.

Under the tutelage of James, William also learned the even more complex principles of management. From James, he could learn, from the ground up, every aspect of the growing Farah operations, accumulating a wealth of knowledge which has helped write the Farah success story to the present day.

In 1939, a vastly expanded Farah operation found itself looking around for still more room; the company decided to buy its entire headquarters building.

A realtor, Sam Rose, had learned that the building was available for $50,000. A far-sighted young banker, Sam Young, now chairman of the board of the El Paso National Bank, lent James Farah the required $15,000 down payment.

In their newly acquired five story, 60,000 square foot building, Farah faced and measured up to its greatest challenge. In 1939, they year Farah took title to the building, Germany invaded Poland and World War II was on.

On Dec. 4, 1941, just three days before the nation was plunged into history’s biggest war by the Japanese attack on Pear Harbor, William Farah enlisted in the Army Air Force to begin his training as a combat pilot which would eventually take him on numerous combat missions in Europe.

Within a matter of weeks, nearly every man at Farah went off to war. Of the remaining three or four male employees, James Farah, Fernando Perez and Trent Wilson are best remembered. James, or Jimmy, as he was known to fellow-workers, stepped in to shoulder the staggering load of managing the business and maintaining the plant. Fernando Perez was declared draft-exempt as an essential war worker; he recounts that he and James thought nothing of working 14-hour shift and then spending much of the night repairing machinery for the next day’s work load.

Mr. Perez recalls the help they received from Hana Farah, who supervised the all-female sewing and production rooms, counseling the staff on personal and production problems, and who made herself available seven days a week, and as many as 16 hours a day.

A third male employee who helped carry the staggering wartime load was Trent Wilson. Mr. Wilson, a city fireman, spent his off-duty days helping James Farah and Fernando Perez maintain and rebuild machinery at the plant. Finally, in 1942, with government war orders flooding in, he came to work as a full-time Farah employee. He recalls the problem of finding qualified workers and of facing wartime shortages. Now retired, he looks back on his 26 years with Farah and says, “I never worked for better people. Or, I’ll put it this way: I never worked for them; I worked with them.”

Government Contracts

Farah received its government contracts from the San Antonio Army Service Depot, Brigadier General A.J. Porter commanding. During the war years, Farah turned out clothing products including combat and fatigue pants, jungle wear and both herringbone and standard khaki uniforms.

Farah’s cutters showed such skill and economy in handling materials that they saved 50,000 yards of cloth on one contract alone, returning the savings to the government, a spirit of efficiency and professionalism which continues to date.

So outstanding was Farah’s wartime production that the U.S. Government selected the plant for presentation of the Army-Navy “E” – the first E-for-Excellence award to be made to any plant west of the Mississippi.

A platform was installed facing San Francisco Street and Farah employees trooped out to see Hana and James Farah received the prized “E” banner from General Porter. The general’s address contained this tribute:

“We hear from some misinformed quarters that democracy cannot work in war time … that the dictator type of government offers greater advantages. We thank God that the great majority of us believe otherwise. From the start, the Farah Company has been outstanding. Always it has been the yardstick for quality. When the weeks stretched into months and the months into years and that incredible record still maintained itself, the firm’s name became synonymous with perfection and was held up as a model for the perfect war plant.”

359,000 Military Pants

The general’s praise was borne out by figures compiled at war’s end. In all, Farah produced 359,000 pairs of military pants without having one rejection. And the plant enjoyed such loyalty and dedication from its staff that it once logged five straight weeks with a single person being absent from his post.

The early morning darkness of July 16, 1945 saw southwestern skies blaze with an unearthly glow; the first atomic bomb had been detonated near Elephant Butte Dam, to be seen for hundreds of surrounding square miles, and signaling the beginning of the atomic age. The war came to an end the following month.

At Farah Manufacturing Company, another crisis and another key decision were at hand: “The war’s over; how do we convert to peace.”

And with the war’s end, the Farah men came home. Among them was William Farah, back from his wartime role as a bomber pilot, preparing for his future role as a family man and in meeting Farah’s postwar challenges.

Farah reverted to producing work clothes, but the company’s eye, still bright from its wartime achievements, began assaying the national markets. This was to be an ambitious goal for a small plant located in El Paso, Texas; a goal which would require refinancing, retooling of war-worn equipment and relocating in a plant designed for efficient production of slacks.

No Standing Still

Both James and William Farah were in complete agreement on one point: “You can’t stand still in the clothing business.” They drew plans for a new 116,000 square foot building which, they believed, would serve them for years to come.

Construction on their new East Third Street plant began in the fall of 1942, reaching completion in April, 1953. Movement of machinery and furniture from the San Francisco location was achieved in a single week. The old Times building was sold and remodeled as the International Mart Building and was only recently demolished to provide space for the new Civic Center.

Whereas maximum production in the old factory was 6,000 pairs of pants a day, 24,000 pairs a day could be turned out in the new facility. This new production, coupled with new marketing techniques, encouraged Farah to switch from major, nationwide retail chains, to sales to independent merchants and the use of the company’s own trade name, FARAH.

And instead of looking to the west as a primary sales area, the company headed east to seek national distribution. Production and sales boomed through the successive years of the 1950’s, sparking the need for still further expansion.

Sales Boom

A new plant was built on East Paisano Drive and was placed in service in 1961, providing Farah with an additional 285,000 square feet of plant space and, incidentally, giving El Paso the distinction of having the largest plant in the work making slacks exclusively under the manufacturer’s own brand name.

It was the 1960’s that Farah began hitting the pace that’s made it a national clothing figure. Its new plants on Gateway West jumped Farah into first place in the field of putting slacks on the American male. Plans for the first new Gateway plant were being completed when the company suffered a staggering blow: James Farah was stricken suddenly, and died at work on January 30, 1964.

El Pasoans at large joined his friends at Farah in mourning the sudden death. William Farah undertook the responsibility of filling the massive void. Work on the new plant forged ahead; the ranks of Farah employees provided dignitaries for ground-breaking ceremonies.

Modern Technology

The massive increase in plant capacity was reflected in production and in sales. The Farah policy of ultra-modern technology, its far-reaching research and development programs, its willingness, even eagerness to experiment with new fabrics and techniques, are matched by its unique approach to employee relations, which provided an all-embracing free medical care, a subsidized cafeteria program, free bus transportation, and Farah’s own profit-sharing and retirement plan.

In 1967, Farah made another big transition; it became a public corporation with stock listed and traded on the New York and the Pacific Stock Exchanges.

Farah’s impact on the market is reflected in a recent three page article in the influential business and investment publication, “Investor’s Reader.” Describing William Farah as “Innovator Willie,” the article continued, “ Farah has a highly efficient manufacturing setup. Willie instituted the emphasis on technical improvements during the tenure of his late brother James, who headed the company from 1947-1964. According to one report, the company’s machinery is several years ahead of the rest of the industry. An outsider credit ‘Willies’ ingenuity’ for many of the innovations.

The same article also quotes a William Farah maxim on investor relations: “We have more impact on the real investor by staying on the over-conservative side and not giving out a lot of baloney. I’d rather surprise people than disappoint them.”

“Speak softy and think as big as America,” pretty well sums up the Farah philosophy toward its employees and investors.