Mr. Cohen earned enough money to open a knitting mill on Walker Street in the lower east side of New York. Growing up in the family business, his son, Herbert Cohen, had other ideas. His vision was of textile mills moving to the southeast United States and he landed a job with Whitaker and Whitaker. The company moved him to Tennessee where he had the challenging task of closing a textile plant. Herb was so distraught, he opened his own business and pledged to never again close a textile mill. Herb Cohen moved to Anderson, South Carolina and started working with local textile mills picking up their textile remnants, overruns and cutting plant waste. By this time, he had several employees who segregated the waste by color and fiber, and then sold it locally for garnetting. Herb had a few old friends in New York who would buy the materials and sell them to retail stores in the northeast and Caribbean.
Phoenix of Anderson was formed after Herb Cohen (Mr. C) had a fire in his Anderson, South Carolina warehouse. “Phoenix” a symbol from the biblical time, representing a bird that arose from the ashes was an appropriate name as Eric, one of Mr. Cohens four sons came into the business. They worked together rebuilding the fabric business and renamed Textile Enterprises of Anderson (TEA) to Phoenix of Anderson. A year later, Herb and Eric approached another son, Greg, about working in the family business. The three Cohens worked together to build up their small fabric wholesale business. For the next five years business was tough as the textile industry was moving off-shore.
By the end of the three days, we had sold enough fabric to get us caught up on our bills and had more then 200 customers walk through our doors and ask when they could come back. We decided to do it again six months later and couldn’t believe it, more then 400 customers visited us in only three days. Within the next few years, All About Fabrics (Outlet Center) had grown to more than 10,000 customers with over 1.2 Million yards in stock. When we open up for these three days every month, we are the largest fabric store in the United States.
As All About Fabrics grew, so did Phoenix of Anderson and Orr/Lyons Industries. Phoenix Of Anderson grew by purchasing all the textile waste, remnants, overruns, and closeout fabrics a textile mill would make. We also purchase many finished products, trimmings, sewing supplies, and notions as well. Orr/Lyons Industries has grown over the past ten years with the “Go Green” push. We help companies with setting up recycling operations and are always looking for new companies to work with. After we segregate the textile waste and other commodities, we consolidate the items until we have enough to load containers and then ship the merchandise around the world.
Today, we are a fully diversified textile company working with fabric consumers, home based businesses, manufacturing companies, textile plants, and many other trades and individuals. In the United States we have more than 1,000 wholesale customers in more than 40 different trades and businesses. We export fabrics to more than 30 countries around the world. If you would like more information on working with us, we would appreciate the opportunity and look forward in hearing from you.
