Since 1965 Life Uniform has put the shirt on the backs of vets, doctors, dentists, and nurses with those crazy-colored scrubs that can sport bears and hearts. Life Uniform sells its products under the Dickies, Barco, Landau, Cherokee, and NurseMates brands. Since scrubs-buying has changed in recent years, the company caters to clients and their employees, who sometimes pay for their work apparel themselves. Life Uniform operates retail stores, a Web site, and also visits the workplace for increased convenience. In mid-2006 the company acquired rival Uniform City, which sells uniforms through a catalog and in stores. Life Uniform is a division of Healthcare Uniform, owned by Sun Capital Partners.

SOS Management has taken a bum rap and turned it into a real superstar. The company acquires slumping clothing labels and licenses the names to other companies. Its popular B.U.M. Equipment name is loaned to clothing, footwear, and accessories manufacturers who sell products through retail shops and department stores in the US and abroad. Wal-Mart licenses the brand in multiple overseas markets and owns the name exclusively in Canada. B.U.M. Equipment was once named one of the top 100 most recognizable brands by industry source Women's Wear Daily. SOS also manages the licenses for American Exchange, Gene Meyer, and Mark Montano. Co-chairmen Stephen Wayne and Steve Marra own SOS Management.

Consolidated Ecoprogress Technology Inc. (CET) produces and distributes biodegradable and disposable absorbent products, including diapers, incontinence products, and femine hygiene products. Every part of its Flushaway-branded feminine hygiene products degrades completely within 28 days of disposal; the product is flushable and begins to break down immediately upon contact with water in the toilet bowl. Wal-Mart is one of the company's biggest clients.

West Coast Cosmetics Inc. firm offers contract manufacturing and private-label services to the personal care products industry. It formulates and packages customized and color-matched cosmetics, including blushes, eye shadows, foundations, lipsticks, mascaras, and powders, in addition to skin care products such as bath salts and perfumes. West Coast Cosmetics is involved in the entire production process, from research and development to packaging and shipping. West Coast Cosmetics is owned by president and CEO Steven Csiszar.

A.T. Cross Company was founded in 1846 and is headquartered in Lincoln, Rhode Island. .T. Cross Company engages in the design and marketing of personal accessories in the United States. It operates in two segments, Cross Accessory Division (CAD) and Cross Optical Group (COG). The CAD segment manufactures and markets writing instruments, including ball-point pens, fountain pens, selectip rolling ball pens, and mechanical pencils, as well as refills. It also designs and markets various personal and business accessories, including leather goods, reading glasses, watches, desk sets, business totes, cufflinks, and stationery. The segment sells writing instruments under the Penatia and Cross brands. The CAD segment sells its products through direct sales force and manufacturers' agents or representatives to retail and wholesale accounts, and directly to consumers via its Website www.cross.com and the Cross retail stores in the United States, as well as through distributors and retailers worldwide. The COG segment designs, manufactures, and markets polarized eyewear under the brand names Costa Del Mar and Native. It sells its products through employee representatives and manufacturers' agents to optical and sunglass specialty shops, department stores, and sporting goods retailers in the United States.

Greif, Inc. engages in the manufacture and sale of industrial packaging products, and containerboard and corrugated products worldwide. The company operates in three segments: Industrial Packaging, Paper Packaging, and Timber. The Industrial Packaging segment offers industrial packaging products, including steel and plastic drums, intermediate bulk containers, closure systems for industrial packaging products, transit protection products, and polycarbonate water bottles, as well as provides blending, filling, logistics, and warehousing services. It sells its products to customers in chemicals, paints and pigments, food and beverage, petroleum, industrial coatings, agriculture, and pharmaceutical and mineral industries.The Paper Packaging segment sells containerboard, corrugated sheets, and other corrugated products and multiwall bags to customers in North America. Its corrugated container products are used to ship various products, such as home appliances, small machinery, grocery products, building products, automotive components, books, and furniture; and industrial and consumer multiwall bag products are used to ship industrial and consumer products, such as seeds, fertilizers, chemicals, concrete, flour, sugar, feed, pet foods, popcorn, charcoal and salt, primarily for the agricultural, chemical, building products, and food industries. Timber segment engages in harvesting and regenerating its timber properties in the United States and Canada. As of October 31, 2008, Greif owned approximately 268,700 acres of timber properties in the United States and 27,450 acres of timber properties in Canada.

Capital Mercury Apparel is playing the name game. Traditionally a maker of uniforms and private-label clothing, the employee-owned company shifted its focus to concentrate on more upscale, branded merchandise. Capital Mercury, founded in 1960, makes a variety of men's and women's clothing, including shirts, sweaters, dress wear, swimwear, and sportswear. Its Bill Blass Premium, Arnold Palmer, and NYNE brands are sold in department stores, and it makes other labels for Wal-Mart stores. Agreements with the likes of designer menswear labels Robert Stock and Wilke-Rodriguez -- as well as a deal struck with Jones Apparel Group -- have brought the company upscale licensing deals.

The family-owned and -operated company was founded by Charles Evans in 1952 to sell serums and vaccines for farm animals. United Pharmacal Co. (UPCO) has answered the call of the wild, as well as the domesticated. The company provides some 15,000 pet products online and through its two catalogs: a full catalog and one specifically for feathered friends. UPCO ships books and training tools, collars, grooming supplies, medicines, food, and toys for family members as big as horses or as small as hamsters.

Madix was established in 1982 through the merger of Dixie Craft Manufacturing and Maytex Store Fixtures. It further expanded in 2003 with the purchase of Spencer Products. The company is management-owned. Madix has it made so that retailers can "have it made." At four factories in Texas, Alabama, and Massachusetts, Madix manufactures workstations, heavy-duty racking, store fixtures, point-of-purchase displays, and storage products. The company operates distribution centers throughout the US and the UK. Its products are sold worldwide, and customers include airports, hospitals, retailers, Internet cafes, and government agencies.

Sterilite was founded in 1939 as a partnership between Earl Tupper (inventor of Tupperware) and brothers Saul and Edward Stone. The Stone family still owns and operates Sterilite. Known as a maker of home-storage items, Sterilite began by making plastic heels. Shoes that melted were not a smashing success, so it eventually honed in on plastic housewares. The company specializes in food-storage containers (pitchers, tumblers), laundry and utility items (clothes baskets, trash cans), and home-storage and organizational items (tote boxes, storage drawers). Its products are sold through big-box and discount retailers the likes of Target.

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