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Fox Cities Embroidery celebrates 10 years

Hortonville business continues to grow

In 2006, Jill Kramer presented Bev Laabs with an opportunity to start a small business in downtown Hortonville.

On Aug. 27 that year, Fox Cities Embroidery Inc. opened its doors.

Fox Cities Embroidery saw a need for Hortonville’s large school district to have an outlet to purchase school apparel.

Quickly after Fox Cities Embroidery opened, it started working with other school districts as well as businesses, assisting to their embroidery and screen printing needs. Not long after, Fox Cities Embroidery hired more people and soon outgrew its original production area.

Before long, it expanded and found a new location next to Subway on Main Street. This move provided better exposure, better advertising opportunities and parking for customers.

The growth of Fox Cities Embroidery didn’t stop there. In the fall of 2015, Fox Cities Embroidery expanded again, doubling the size of its production facility.

Due to schools and corporate supporters, Fox Cities Embroidery has more than doubled its business. Although the Fox Cities Embroidery showroom only caters to Hortonville and New London school districts, it works with schools as far south as Madison and Milwaukee and as far north as Marinette. Fox Cities Embroidery provides apparel and promotional products to both small local businesses and nationally recognized businesses.

Fox Cities Embroidery now offers its customers personal online stores.

For example, coaches no longer need to collect paper order forms and money from the players, as everything is available online. This is more effective for the coaches and the parents.

Online stores work for businesses, too. With an online store, the employees can purchase their corporate wear directly online without filling out a paper form.

This past June, Kramer purchased the other half of the business from Laabs. Laabs continues to work on a part-time basis in the production area. Fox Cities Embroidery currently has a mix of 14 full-time and part-time employees.

Kramer said much has changed in the industry over the past 10 years. There are new methods to decorate garments used at Fox Cities Embroidery: rhinestones, glitter inks and metallic threads, laser etching, distressed printing, oversized prints. This allows Fox Cities Embroidery to keep up with trends and personalize their customers’ apparel. Newer offerings include high-quality performance fabrics, more ladies’ and men’s tall size options and stylish junior apparel.

Fox Cities Embroidery will celebrate 10 years in business with several different events and sales including $10 items throughout August. It will also have the annual tent sale Thursday, Aug. 25, to Saturday, Aug. 27.

“The community has supported us for nearly 10 years and we feel blessed and enjoy giving back to our community,” Kramer said.

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