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Midway Acquires Bancroft Cap
Class A Division, Naming Rights
By Jackie Rosselli
It is a widely held industry belief that the hat is the essence of any good uniform program, for without it, no look would be complete. For Chicago-based Midway Cap Company, its recent acquisition of Arkansas' Bancroft Cap may be just the deal it's been looking for to complete its reputation as one of the leading headwear manufacturers in the industry.
Well known for its high quality brands and product offerings – the instantly recognizable checker board hat worn by the Chicago Police Department springs to mind, Midway recently purchased the naming rights and Class A division of Bancroft Cap company, the troubled manufacturer that filed for bankruptcy early last year. At the time, Bancroft was the only company under contract with the Department of Defense to supply the U.S. military black berets, and, under the Berry Amendment, was to do so with 100 percent domestic materials. But it got caught mixing domestic and foreign wool and leather, a violation of U.S. law. When the Pentagon demanded return of more than a million dollars that it had paid Bancroft for berets with foreign materials the company realized it had no choice but to file for bankruptcy protection.
Increasing and maintaining profits is a motivation for all in business. One obvious and direct way to achieve additional profit is to cut costs. While this should be examined, controlled and reduced on a regular basis, one must be careful to avoid a significant trap.
Cutting costs by reducing human resources is often a primary strategy. The risk is that you will lose good people when you will need them again to support growth during an upturn or to meet increased sales demands. Downsizing is a defensive strategy that may be required at times but a 1993 study showed that only 45 percent of companies that downsized reported an increase in operating profits.
Of course, you should always take advantage of technology advances that enable cheaper, better and faster performance. Selling or eliminating non-performing assets will help also. These can be assessed in light of asking the question, “What business are we in?”
The bottom line is that cost cutting can only take you so far in the quest to increase profits. So what’s the alternative strategy?
It’s nothing new that Americans are buying offshore merchandise by the billions of dollars. Uniforms are no exception. Any uniform manufacturer—any article of clothing used for uniforms and sold by a manufacturer or a distributor—that has any sort of volume to it at all, is made overseas.
There is no question that the world grows smaller by the nano-second. That the United States has multiple trade treaties and tariff agreements with other countries, either pending or in effect, is undeniable. It is absolutely true that cheaper goods purchased overseas have allowed millions of American citizens to have a better quality of life, just as it is also true that our economy has been pumped heartily by those who shop for offshore- made items—not only at the Wal-Mart’s, K-Mart’s, and Target’s—but at the Penney’s, Sears’, Macy’s, Saks, Neiman’s, and Nordstrom’s, too.
We can debate and argue about geo-politics and economic forecasts from now until Doomsday, but the bottom line is that things aren’t going to go backwards; if any changes occur in our present economic situation, they will only be to further the global economy.
Increasing and maintaining profits is a motivation for all in business. One obvious and direct way to achieve additional profit is to cut costs. While this should be examined, controlled and reduced on a regular basis, one must be careful to avoid a significant trap. 
It’s nothing new that Americans are buying offshore merchandise by the billions of dollars. Uniforms are no exception. Any uniform manufacturer—any article of clothing used for uniforms and sold by a manufacturer or a distributor—that has any sort of volume to it at all, is made overseas.
