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BUSINESS
CHAM I*JOM
April 21 - 27, 2016 » Page 21A
Owner Ron Patrie, right, says his caring and dedicated staff is the reason for the success of his business. Photo by Kathy Mitchell
Company restores fabric and lives
by Kathy Mitchell
Ron Patrie, owner of FRSTeam
of North and Central Georgia,
often tells friends and neighbors
that he hopes they never become
his customers. FRSTeam, a textile
restoration services provider, helps
to mitigate damage after a fire or
flood.
“We’re called in when
something bad has happened to
someone and we never want bad
things to happen to anyone,” Patrie
said. “However, when they do
happen, we do everything we can
to help.”
Based in Decatur, FRSTeam
of North and Central Georgia is a
franchise with a service area that
reaches as far south as Columbus.
“We don’t serve Georgia’s
southernmost cities such as
Savannah and Albany, but we serve
most of the state,” Patrie said.
He explained that his company
restores a building’s “soft contents”
such as clothing, bedding and
drapery in contrast to “hard
contents” such as tables and
appliances.
Patrie said his company is
occasionally called in following an
unfortunate event at a business,
but more than 95 percent of its
work is with residences. “We deal
primarily with families—people
who need to get on with their lives.
The first thing we do is have them
gather some clothes they need right
away and we get those items back
to them as quickly as possible so
they have clothes to wear to work,
school or church. I remember a
family that had a fire on New Year’s
Eve. We picked up clothes that
afternoon and worked all evening.
We delivered the clothes at 9 that
evening so they had something to
wear New Year’s Day,” he said.
FRSTeam is engaged by
insurance companies following
a loss, Patrie explained. The
company works directly with
the customer and is paid by the
insurance company. “We don’t set
our rates,” he said. “The insurance
companies do that.”
One of two national fabric
restoration companies, FRSTeam
celebrated its 10th anniversary
at its annual conference in Napa,
Calif. There FRSTeam of North
and Central Georgia received the
Franchisee Leader Award, the
company’s highest honor. “I had no
idea we had been chosen for this
until they called my name at the
conference,” Patrie said. “It was
a great honor to bring back to the
team.”
“The team,” as he refers to
his staff is the reason for the
company’s success, Patrie said.
“That’s the key; I choose good
people—people who care deeply
about other people and are going
to take a personal interest in
putting their lives back in order after
something bad has happened to
them.”
Patrie, whose background is
in the dry cleaning industry, said
he chose FRSTeam because the
corporation shares his values. “Of
course, as a company we have to
make money to stay in business,
but I wanted to be affiliated with
people who put the people we
serve first.” FRSTeam of North and
Central Georgia is the company’s
second franchise and has been
with FRSTeam almost since its
inception.
He said moving on from dry
cleaning was a necessity. “With
more people wearing washable
clothing there were too many
dry cleaners and not enough dry
cleaning,” he recalled, adding that
he enjoys his current business
much more.
“In the dry cleaning business
you almost never have customers
hug you and tell you what a
blessing you have been for them.
With us, that happens all the time,”
Patrie said.
Restoring items that have been
damaged from smoke, soot, mold
or water requires more expertise
than ordinary dry cleaning, he
explained. In addition to the
“decades of experience” on his
staff, Patrie said the corporate
office makes sure its franchisees
have state-of-the-art training.
The FRSTeam corporate office,
based in California, describes
itself as “at the forefront of
technical innovations, equipping its
franchisees with better tools so that
they can provide superior service to
customers who have experienced
a fire or water loss.” The company
reports that in 2014 it developed
FRSTrack, the first cloud-based
photo inventory system available
for textile restoration on a national
level, which delivers a detailed
photo catalogue and cost valuation
of all items being processed for
restoration.” FRSTeam, which now
has 48 franchise companies in
the United States and Canada, for
three consecutive years has been
on the Inc. 5000 list of America’s
fastest growing private companies.