ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 4, 1996 TAG: 9604040038
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ELLIOTT SMITH STAFF WRITER
DAYMAN USA, which sells military goods to wholesalers, catalogs and movie companies, is redeploying its depot from Bedford to Roanoke.
Don't be surprised if you miss out on Roanoke's newest business heading into town - it's coming in under camouflage. A whole lot of it.
Dayman USA Inc., an international military surplus wholesaler, is moving its stockpile of goods from Bedford to the Roanoke Industrial Center. The company expects to set up shop at 1912 Ninth St. S.E. by the end of this month.
Dayman features an inventory of about 250 different items, including German army long johns, British sleeping bags, GI helmets and French navy shorts. The company, which was founded in the 1940s, earned more than $1 million last year, selling its goods to more than 3,000 customers, including catalog wholesalers, war re-enactment groups, sporting goods stores, and even Hollywood movie producers seeking authentic props.
``We did have some stuff in `Hot Shots!''' said John Boone, Dayman's sales director, Most of the movies the company has sold items for usually aren't the most successful box office hits, he said. "But right now, I would say that 60 percent of our business is with Japan, because a lot of the European clothing [is] in small sizes and the people here in the United States are just too big for it."
According to Boone, Dayman gets a 40-foot-long container filled with stock every two or three months. The company's suppliers buy the goods directly from the European military bases at wholesale prices, and Boone estimates the cost of one container ranges from $40,000 to $60,000.
"It's a hidden market," Boone said. "It would be unbelievable if you knew the type of cash flow that goes through this business. Right now we're only one of three European wholesalers in the United States."
Some of the items that Dayman sells to companies include NATO forces flak vests from the 1970s at $95 each and current British police bobby helmets at $100 each.
"We recently bought about $350,000 worth of goods from Dayman," said Dan Gaddis, director of merchandising for U.S. Cavalry, a military mail-order catalog that goes to 15 million homes. "The quality is good and the price is good. We buy things like Swiss military uniforms, French and Italian rucksacks, helmets, belts and pouches."
Dayman also sells authentic tunics that the guards wear at Buckingham Palace, under a pact with the British government.
"These things are supposed to be shredded by the defense department after their use, because they don't want people walking around [England] wearing these things," Boone said. "We get them on a handshake agreement that they will be exported."
The company found its current location - 208 Depot St. in Bedford - on sort of a whim. That was in 1987 when the firm was operating in England and looking to expand into the United States. Company officials basically picked a point on a map and came up with Western Virginia. They chose Bedford because it matched by name the company's location in England. However, the need for more space and a chance for new business prompted the move from 6,000 square feet in Bedford to the 9,000-square-foot space in the Roanoke industrial center.
"We have to turn away about 10 to 15 people a day who walk in and want to purchase something," Boone said. "It's easier to sell 100 of something as it is to sell one. But when we get set up in Roanoke and everything will be on one floor, we'll probably be able to handle some retail business."
Also, in the next two weeks Dayman plans to open a Los Angeles branch, to deal with Hollywood studios as well as the burgeoning Japanese market for military surplus. Boone estimates there are 50 Japanese wholesalers based in Los Angeles.
The company has also introduced a line of clothing for women - Soldiers of Fashion - which takes the small sizes of some military wear and alters them to fit women.
"It was a real hare-brained idea," Boone said. "But we took it to the Associated Surplus Dealers trade show in Las Vegas and it got a great reaction."
"A lot of the clothes are being sold for alternative fashion," Gaddis said. "We had a Swedish coat that we got from Dayman in the fall on our back cover for $19.88. We sold 3,000 of them in less than two months and I had to cancel 1,500 other orders because we didn't have enough."
Dayman employs nine people, but Boone said the company may add people if the operation continues to grow.
"It's a real crazy business," he said.
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: CINDY PINKSTON/Staff. 1. Surplus can range from theby CNBexotic to the workaday. At left, a British bobby's helmet. 2. Below,
entrenching tools. 3. Hunters probably won't be interested in this
ceremonial British army busby and tunic, here modeled by John Boone,
sales director for Dayman USA. color.