Roswell Brayton Jr., president and chief executive officer of Woolrich Inc., who repositioned the 177-year-old apparel company as a lifestyle brand, died Monday after collapsing at company headquarters in Woolrich, Pa. He was 55.
Brayton was taken to Jersey Shore Hospital in Jersey Shore, Pa., where efforts to revive him failed. The cause of death was not immediately determined.
A sixth-generation member of the Rich family that founded Woolrich in 1830, Brayton grew up in Woolrich and joined the company in 1978. He became president in 1996 and ceo in 1997.
Brayton steered the $300 million company as it moved to position itself as a lifestyle marketing brand instead of a manufacturer. He led the company through some of the most dramatic changes in its history, as it expanded both its international and domestic licensing and launched consumer catalogs and e-commerce. At the 175th anniversary party in 2005, he told WWD, “Our founding members would be pleased with the direction we have taken.”
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The brand remained committed to John Rich’s founding philosophy, he said.
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“The company was and still is conservative,” Brayton said. “Then and now, we have always concentrated on functional product, and we are very employee-oriented. The company has always thought in terms of long-term growth with security for our employees. Sustaining growth on a long-term basis has always been more important to us than fast-turn growth.”
Woolrich’s succession plan has not been announced.
“This comes as a completely unexpected shock to all of us at Woolrich,” the company said in a statement. “Everyone at Woolrich is dealing with the sudden loss of an active and vibrant president. Our thoughts are focused on support of the family.”
Brayton received a bachelor’s degree from Harvard in 1973. He was inducted into the Harvard Varsity Club Hall of Fame in 1998 for his excellence in pitching for the Harvard baseball team. Brayton was tapped for all-league honors in 1972 and 1973 and was named the team’s most valuable player in 1972. After graduation, he played professionally for the Boston Red Sox for four years before joining the family business. He started in sales and assumed responsibility for accounting and finance, becoming treasurer and vice president of finance before his most recent roles.
The company has faced some major challenges. In the late Eighties, the brand’s chamois shirts were staples worn by East Coast college students, and Woolrich had 10 factories in the U.S. There were 3,500 employees producing its branded merchandise as well as private label apparel for L.L. Bean and Lands’ End. When those two firms turned to offshore manufacturing, they took 25 percent of Woolrich’s apparel business with them.
In the 2005 interview, Brayton said the company “maybe made a mistake” by not going global after several competitors had already done so. However, its resistance was rooted in good intentions. Having employed generations of families, the idea of abandoning them and leaving workers without a paycheck was not something Woolrich executives took lightly. Eventually, management realized “it was impossible for us to remain” entirely in the U.S.
Although Woolrich moved some of its production overseas, the firm retained three factories and distribution centers within a 25-mile radius of headquarters, which has a woolen mill on its property that still operates. Woolrich makes blankets for the U.S. military and manufactures the wool that is used for the Navy’s peacoats.
At the 175th anniversary party — celebrated by more than 850 people — Brayton invited retired Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf to speak about the importance of leadership, and because Schwarzkopf is an outdoorsman, conservationist and humanitarian. “He represents our lifestyle; his visit here has nothing to do with politics,” Brayton said.
Brayton is survived by his wife, Sally; seven children, and two sisters. His father, Roswell Brayton Sr., former chairman and executive vice president of Woolrich, died at age 88 in December 2005. His mother, Catherine Rich Brayton, died in April 2000.
Services will be 7 p.m. Thursday at the Trinity Episcopal Church, 844 West Fourth Street in Williamsport, Pa. A graveside service will be held 11 a.m. Saturday at the family grave site in Fall River, Mass.