Retiring brothers look to pass the torch for their Leechburg business

Mark and Keith Fetterman are looking for people with passion.

After 44 years owning and operating Kiski Valley Uniforms and Supply, the brothers are ready to retire and pass the torch to some new blood.

“We’re getting old,” said Mark Fetterman, 75. “It’s time.”

The brothers have posted two sales listings. One is for the two-story building on Market Street in Leechburg for $375,000. It houses one of the uniform supply storefronts, a Fox’s Pizza location, three apartments and three additional spaces framed for apartments.

The second listing is for the whole enchilada — the building and the Kiski Valley Uniform business — for $1.1 million.

The Fettermans, though, are open to negotiating with serious buyers, said Bobby Bucci, the real estate agent handling the sale. Bucci, who is Keith Fetterman’s son-in-law, is the owner of the Fox’s Pizza.

“It doesn’t matter (who the interested buyers are). My litmus test would be that it’s somebody that has a passion,” said Mark Fetterman of Cranberry. “After 44 years, I want the business to continue to grow. You don’t have to have a lot of prior experience because we started with no knowledge whatsoever in the business and we’re where we are today.”

He said the main requirement for a buyer is that they have a passion and a genuine interest in continuing to emphasize the ideals the brothers have cultivated over the years, including good service and fair prices.

He also said they’d only agree to sell if the business’s 10 employees are kept on during the transition of ownership and the current leases with the apartment renters and Fox’s Pizza are upheld.

The business wouldn’t be where it is today without the employees, he said.

Fetterman said he’d be willing to help with the ownership transition and stay on as a consultant if the new owners want that.

“I’d help until they no longer needed me or they fired me,” he said. “Whatever comes first. It doesn’t really matter to me.”

The business boasts hundreds of clients, including various police, fire and EMS departments from Western Pennsylvania between its Leechburg and Murrysville locations, and the building produces its own revenue from the rent it brings in each month.

Fetterman said there’s also value in the history of the business’s beginning.

He learned about the uniform-making business when he was acting mayor of Apollo in 1980. He was on a ride along with police officers to pick up uniforms. He realized the officers had to travel to Glassport, more than an hour away from Apollo, to the closest uniform supply shop.

When he learned about the supply need in the Alle-Kiski Valley, it planted the idea for his own business. Fetterman began thinking about the fire, police and EMS departments that would be more likely to come to a closer shop. He pitched the idea to his brother.

Keith Fetterman, 78, of West Leechburg, had his doubts when his brother presented the business proposition.

“It took some convincing,” Mark Fetterman said.

Both schoolteachers for most of the year, the brothers were working with concrete in the summer months to earn extra cash.

Keith Fetterman agreed to the financial risk of starting the business if it meant the work would be easier on his body. He also agreed because of his time in fire and EMS departments, which he began volunteering for in 1974.

“I’ve been in charge of numerous EMS organizations because I like trying to help people,” he said.

Kiski Valley Uniforms and Supply began in North Apollo Plaza in 1981.

“In the beginning, we had no experience in the uniform business,” Mark Fetterman said. “We would go to our competitor and take little notes. We’d look at the tags and where they got the stuff to figure out where we were going to get the stuff. Later on, we realized (clients) had a ‘made-to-measure’ that had all of that stuff, but at the time we knew nothing.

“We were sort of incognito, going in there undercover as customers to find out the brands so we could research them.”

A made-to-measure order is when a tailor or garment professional takes detailed measurements of the individual, including chest, waist, hips, inseam and arm length.

The measurements are then used to adjust an existing base uniform to create a more precise fit for specific people. The brothers have completed these orders in the shop and on-site of departments in cases of a larger clientele such as the Greensburg Volunteer Fire Department, which has about 150 members.

The brothers continued teaching for years.

Keith Fetterman taught at Wilkinsburg until 1997, and Mark Fetterman taught at Apollo-Ridge and then served as the elementary school’s principal before retiring in 2006. They put every extra penny they had back into Kiski Valley Uniform in the first couple of years.

Both men were able to make connections with customers through their community service. Keith Fetterman served on Oklahoma Borough Council for a time and spent over 25 years with the Oklahoma Fire Department and Ambulance Service, serving in various capacities.

Mark Fetterman was an Apollo councilman after being appointed mayor from 1980 to 1982.

From there, they used the good reviews from customers, spread by word of mouth, to grow the company.

Mark Fetterman said the business eventually outgrew its original space and moved to its current location in Leechburg. In the summer of 2009, the business expanded to a second location in Murrysville to better serve the Pittsburgh metropolitan area.

The shops have become a meeting place for generations of EMS workers from throughout Western Pennsylvania.

Keith Fetterman said he’ll miss dealing with customers the most when he retires. Some of their regulars have been coming to the store for more than 30 years. He has watched some retire.

“It’s to the point that they’re asking, ‘why haven’t you guys retired?’ That’s because we enjoy what we do,” he said. “We enjoy serving the public, providing needs for the public and making sure they get what they need.”

Keith Fetterman is looking forward to being able to take some leisurely trips by train and set up model trains that have been sitting in their boxes for years.

Mark Fetterman said he’d miss being able to interact with the people when he retires. He said his biggest fear is “going 100 miles an hour” to having nothing to occupy himself.

“When I was at the school district, the people coming through our doors had to be there. By law, they were required,” Mark Fetterman said. “The people coming through these doors are coming because they want to. It really makes all the difference.”

He is looking forward to spending his time golfing and maybe taking his boat out on the water more in his retirement years.

Those interested in touring the building can visit the Howard Hanna website and contact Bucci for more information.