Mr. Neat’s formally sold

LOVELAND — Mark Burke is hanging up his top hat.

After almost 34 years, 100,000 weddings and more than 1 million tuxedos rented, the founder and CEO of Mister Neat’s Formalwear has inked a deal to sell the company to Houston-based chain Al’s Formal Wear. The acquisition closed on Dec. 3 and went off without a hitch, according to Burke. Despite the change in ownership, he is confident not much will change.

“I wanted to find a way to take care of our people and our customers,” Burke said.

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Burke said that selling the Loveland-based chain to Al’s was the best way to do that. Al’s Formal Wear has nearly 100 locations in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma. The firm, Burke explained, is better suited to compete in the increasingly “big-box” dominated formalwear industry.

“Al’s is very lean and integrated in its own systems,” he said, making for a more competitive company. “I think they’ll be very successful.”

Al’s, founded in 1952 by Alan Gaylor, not only operates retail rental stores. The company also runs Ascot Formal Wear, a wholesale division that supplies tuxedos and accessories to other privately held formalwear businesses across the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii.

For Burke, the decision to sell Mister Neat’s was not an easy one. He likens the company to a child that he’s nurtured from infanthood. But in order for the company to continue to be successful, he felt it best to let it go.

The industry has really changed in the past five years, Burke said. There was a major consolidation, including the purchase earlier this year of AfterHours Formalwear — part of the Federated Department Stores lineup — by Men’s Wearhouse. Burke described the transaction as that of two 800-pound gorillas combining into one 1,600-pound gorilla.

Read more about the sale of Mister Neat’s in the Dec. 7 edition of the Northern Colorado Business Report, or online at www.ncbr.com.