ArthurWeiss

Media Coverage & Claims Magazine

Media Coverage

US1
​October 2000​

Restoring teddy bears and other cherished belongings that have been damaged by fire-it may not be an extremely lucrative business, but as a drycleaner’s specialty, it works for Arthur Weiss.

Weiss, the president of Betty Brite Cleaners, has renovated and reopened a 20,500 square-foot plant at Windsor Industrial Park that is being billed as the largest in North America specializing in disaster restoration services. His grand opening celebration will be Tuesday, September 19. A plant tour will begin at 10 a.m., and at 11:30 a.m. a press conference will announce a national Coats for Kids program. Ribbon cutting will be at noon.

Weiss is the third generation in the drycleaning and tailoring business; his grandfather had a tailor shop in the Bronx, and in 1950 his father opened a drycleaing establishment in Queens but moved it to Twin Rivers in 1971. A month later, when he was just 17 years old and a freshman at Lehman College, Arthur Weiss’ father died, and he had to leave college and take over the business. His mother, Laura, continued working in the business until her hip operation at age 75.

Weiss opened a shop in Mercerville in 1978, sold the original location in 1990, and started a VIP express service for homes and offices. The current plant is a rental at Windsor Industrial Park in the former Mack Lumber building. The business has grown 25 percent a year for the past three years and employs 25 people. Among its charity projects are collecting “Coats for Kids,” for Trenton’s LIFT (Looking Into the Future Together), and canned goods and adult clothing for hurricane victims.

The new “environmentally friendly” equipment can recirculate process water, recover solvents using advanced aircleaing system and use waste steam recovery for generating hot water. Advanced wetcleaning technology uses solutions with 60 percent water and only 40 percent solvent.

In an overcrowded field, Weiss looked for a specialty, and now he is a textile restoration expert-cleaning textiles that had been exposed to smoke, soot, fire, or water damage. Items that would otherwise be doomed to landfills are returned to complete their intended use, says Lori Hullfish, customer relation manager. “In addition, we accomplish the challenging task of bringing peoples’ lives back to normal after a catastrophe.”

In an overcrowded field, Weiss of Betty Brite Cleaners looked for a specialty, and now he is a textile restoration expert-cleaning textiles that had been exposed to smoke, soot, fire, or water damage.

More than 80 percent of the company’s work is reclamation business, obtained by recommendations from insurance companies and cleaning contractors.” I consider the business more than a job.  I spent a lot of time developing my skills and I enjoy doing it,” says the 46 -year-old Weiss. He is founder and president of the international Association of Restoration Drycleaners, and has certifications from several other trade groups.

Many drycleaners say they do restoration, but-in a 75 mile radius Weiss has identified only six that really do specialize in it. “That means a lot of others are saying they can do it,” says Weiss.

Requirements for succeeding in the restoration business include being fair to the insurance company and working well with contractors who are doing the cleaning in the burned out home. Most important, says Weiss, is to have a good bedside manner, to make the client feel at ease that their possessions will turn out OK. “We do see people going through an emotional roller coaster. It is a new experience, and it is traumatic. If it is a very bad disaster, it doesn’t get corrected over night but takes months. We see people going through all the different Phases.”

When his plant deodorizes items and treats the soot and smoke, the cost, surprisingly, is usually only 40 to 50 percent more than regular cleaning. “That covers our going to the home, packing the clothes inventorying for the insurance with our quote, separating the items by the rooms they came from, storage, and bringing them back.”

Even that price may seem expensive compared to replacing clothes, he admits, but insurance reimburses items only for the “as-is” value, the condition that the clothes were in, and they pay very little for used clothing. “Plus it takes people a long time to accumulate a wardrobe to suit their tastes,” he says.

“I take special attention to stuffed animals because I collect them,” says Weiss. He and his Insurance agent wife, Amy-Lisa, happened to buy cute pillows with teddy bear faces about five years ago, and now they have a collection of more than 100 stuffed bears. His specialty within the specialty is the “businessperson bear,” and his current favorite carries a monogrammed briefcase and has a cell phone that beeps.

One particular set of animal treasures was in such bad shape he told the customer it could not be restored. “They wanted them cleaned regardless. One of my people spent an awful lot of time on them-and they looked almost like new,” says Weiss. Stuffed animal restoration generally costs $10 to $20, a well-worth-it price, as parent know. “You wouldn’t want to tell a child he has to throw his teddy bear away.”

-Barbara Fox

Betty Brite Cleaners, 92 North Main Street Industrial Park, Building 15F, Windsor 08561. Arthur Weiss, president. 609-426-4600, fax 609-426-4604.

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