Tailored Brands is one of North America’s leading menswear retailers, with a portfolio that includes Men’s Wearhouse, Jos. A. Bank, Moores and K&G Fashion Superstore. But while the company serves customers across the U.S. and Canada and sources products globally, an important part of its manufacturing story remains planted squarely in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

The company’s manufacturing facility on Belleville Avenue is one of the largest tailored clothing facility in the United States and the exclusive producer of Joseph Abboud suits, sport coats and dress trousers. Men’s Wearhouse, Tailored Brands’ largest retail brand, is the primary retail destination for Joseph Abboud.

More than 350 skilled workers turn out 200 custom garments each week and more than 115,000 suits, separates and tuxedos annually.

Operating from its historic New Bedford location since the launch of the Abboud brand in 1987, the facility remains an important source of skilled manufacturing jobs on the South Coast. It also combines generations of tailoring expertise with modern technology designed to make the manufacturing process more efficient.

Among those innovations is an automated overhead smart conveyor that moves garments and materials between workstations throughout the factory. Installed in 2019, the system improved the factory’s efficiency by approximately 8%, according to Joe Bahena, vice president of manufacturing for Tailored Brands and a member of the AIM Board of Directors.

That combination of American manufacturing, skilled craftsmanship and continued innovation has earned Tailored Brands the September AIM Excellence in Manufacturing Award. The award is presented monthly to a Massachusetts manufacturer that has demonstrated an exceptional commitment to operational excellence, innovative production techniques, workforce development, economic opportunity and service to the community.

AIM will honor the company during a visit to the New Bedford facility on October 22.

“Tailored Brands in New Bedford is an extraordinary story of innovation, investment and skilled employees making manufacturing work in Massachusetts. As the exclusive producer of Joseph Abboud suits, sport coats and dress trousers, the plant creates economic opportunity here in southeastern Massachusetts while making the rest of the country look good,” said Brooke Thomson, President and CEO of AIM.

While technology helps move garments efficiently through the factory, many of the most important steps still depend on the skill and precision of its employees.

Bahena told Marketplace last year that sleeve-setting — the process of carefully attaching a sleeve to a coat — is what he calls “the hardest job in the factory.” The work is so important to the look and fit of the finished garment that every coat produced at the facility is inspected after its sleeves are set.

“We’re going to make that coat look perfect before it moves on and it gets to our customer,” Bahena said.

The art and science of manufacturing built the Massachusetts economy, from the Springfield Armory pioneering the use of interchangeable parts in 1777 to bioscience companies like Takeda producing state-of-the-art medicines in the Commonwealth today. And though manufacturing companies employ about half the number of people they did three decades ago, the sector remains a critical conduit for economic opportunity and advancement.

Approximately 230,000 people work at manufacturing companies in Massachusetts, about 7% of the Commonwealth’s total non-farm payroll. Manufacturing is expected to contribute $64 billion in economic output this year – 9.6% of the Massachusetts gross state product.

It’s one of the reasons that AIM devotes much of its public-policy efforts to supporting manufacturers in areas such as taxation, sustainability, energy and regulation.

For Tailored Brands, New Bedford represents a proud tradition of American manufacturing. It’s a tradition that continues to evolve through skilled craftsmanship and innovation.