Seamless Transition for Valley Forge Fabrics
 Michael and Diana Dobin (with parents Daniel and Judy) play major roles in the family business. They have introduced new product lines and new corporate policies, such as mandatory recycling. [Photo: Eileen Escarda] |
To wrap your mind around the business of Valley Forge Fabrics, take a look at the hotel room pictured below. Add it all up, and furnishing a typical upscale hotel room requires about 170 yards of fabric. At $6 to $36 a yard, that means each room costs between $1,000 and $6,100 to drape, sheet and upholster.
And the sales cycle is short: Many hotel managers change the bedding fabrics every 18 months or so to keep their rooms looking modern and new. “In the scheme of things that go into a hotel room, we are cheaper than the carpet, and we are cheaper than the furniture,” says Diana Dobin, a senior vice president at Valley Forge. “So when they need to freshen up the room, we are the least expensive thing they can do.”
 Design librarian Aran Swart catalogs the company’s fabric swatches. Valley Forge employs 100 in south Florida — about half of the workers are designers.? [Photo: Eileen Escarda]  |
As the lodging industry has grown — there are now nearly 4.5 million hotel rooms in the U.S. alone — Valley Forge’s mom-and-pop-and-kids operation has grown right along with it to become the world’s largest supplier of decorative fabrics to hotels. Last year, the company, founded in 1977 by Dobin’s parents, Daniel and Judy Dobin, sold more than 10 million yards of fabric.
Thirty years ago, the couple were struggling to support themselves and three children — two more came later — selling fabric for velvet curtains in the New York area. Their specialty, fire-resistant velvets required for curtains in theaters, began to attract orders from Las Vegas after a 1980 fire at the MGM Grand killed 87 people. The deaths prompted an overhaul of hotel fire-safety codes in the city that spread throughout Nevada and the nation.
Filling orders for Vegas velvet, the Dobins saw that no firms were positioned to meet hotels’ enormous demand for fabric. Their decision to focus on the hospitality niche sewed up the company’s success. The Dobins began making upholstery fabrics, specifically the intricately woven jacquards often used in hotel rooms. They also became experts in hotel fire codes, which differed depending on state and local government rules, so they could advise hotel chains doing business in different parts of the country.
In 1992, Daniel and Judy moved their family and business from New York to Broward County. They wanted to escape the cold and their two-hour daily commute into the city and be closer to their parents, who had retired to Florida. Ten employees made the move south, too. Diana, the oldest of the Dobins’ five children, and brother Michael, also a senior vice president, went to work for the company straight out of college, opening the company’s first international offices in the mid-1990s. (Of the remaining Dobin siblings, one sister is a developer, while two are still in college.)
Fabric Demand: Typical upscale hotel room |
Diana and Michael make it clear that their parents still run the company. But the second generation is leading Valley Forge’s latest venture, which aims at both profits and sustainability.
 Daniel and Judy Dobin started the company in 1977 in New York. They moved the business to Pompano Beach in 1992.? [Top photo: Eileen Escarda Bottom photo: Valley Forge Fabrics] |
Diana and Michael began researching the environmental aspects of their industry in 2002 to find answers to customers’ questions about recycled content and other practices. They wanted to see if Valley Forge could make money offering a line of sustainable products. The more they learned, the more intrigued they became with the potential for not only significant profit, but significant savings of water, energy and waste.
The Dobins, who have both earned professional LEED accreditations, discovered that their customers tossed all their old bedding into the garbage when they bought a new line — a practice both wasteful and costly, since hotel chains pay by the ton in landfill fees. Their research into the raw materials used to make fabrics was also an eye-opener. For example, cotton crops require heavy use of pesticides and scarce water in some of the driest parts of the world.
The company worked two years on product development, spent what Daniel Dobin describes as “an investment greater than any other endeavor we’ve ever undertaken” and rolled out two sustainable product lines. The company’s Fresh line of bedding debuted in 2007 and now makes up half of Valley Forge’s products. The material, made entirely from recycled plastic bottles, feels as soft and cozy as cotton. In 2008, the company introduced Living Fresh bedding products. Woven from eucalyptus and cotton, the material has a silky, luxurious texture.
The company developed and debuted the new lines as the global economy and the hospitality industry began their slide. Valley Forge’s revenue has dropped 26% in the downturn. But the family feels they’ve positioned the company perfectly in the meantime. The second generation could end up capitalizing by helping customers navigate the green-certification maze in the same way their parents helped hotels meet evolving fire code regulations 30 years ago: By using the Fresh products,
hotels can earn credit for LEED and the myriad green-lodging certification programs popping up across the U.S. and other parts of the world.
Another perk for customers who buy Fresh and Living Fresh bedding: Valley Forge will recycle all the fabrics that the hotels replace; much of it will end up in new pillows, duvets and other products. The Fresh fabrics are flame retardant, pass the strictest fire codes with no chemicals, and the new lines cost the same or less than traditional fabric. “People aren’t going to just buy it because it’s environmentally sustainable,” says Michael Dobin. “They’re going to buy it because it’s beautiful and meets the price points.”
The new products have drawn interest from upscale customers like the Breakers in Palm Beach — and also from retailers. Michael and Diana Dobin say they’re negotiating with six major companies that want to turn Fresh into home-bedding lines to be marketed as environmentally friendly, luxurious and inexpensive. They’re wary of moving beyond their father’s decision to focus exclusively on the hospitality industry but may partner with one of the chains.
Their parents don’t seem too worried. “Before Michael and Diana, we never would have explored recycled products, either,” Daniel Dobin says.
“We are able to learn from our children just as they are able to learn from us.”
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Here’s a look at energy, water and other savings for 700,000 duvets (at 9 yards apiece) — the calculation was done on behalf of a major hotel chain — made with 100% post-consumer recycled polyester from plastic bottles.
- Energy: 85,280,320 fewer kilowatt hours, a savings of 66% compared to virgin polyester
- Water: 6,988,320 fewer gallons of water, a savings of 27% compared to virgin polyester
- Global warming: 21,204,160 fewer pounds of carbon dioxide being released into the air, a 46% savings compared to virgin polyester
- Toxins: 886,880 fewer pounds of dichlorobenzene, a pesticide and suspected carcinogen; a 34% savings compared to virgin polyester
Next page: More photos of Valley Forge
 About half of Valley Forge’s sales and designs are custom. The company chooses its own yarns and weavers. Its fabrics are manufactured in the United States, China, Pakistan, Israel, Taiwan, Turkey and India. Designers say the level of control gives Valley Forge more vivid colors and finer patterns than many commercial fabric houses. [Photo: Eileen Escarda] |
 The company’s Fresh line of bedding
— on the loom at left — is made entirely from recycled plastic bottles and feels
as soft as cotton. |
 [Photos: Valley Forge Fabrics] |