IMPERIAL HEADWEAR CELEBRATES 90 YEARS IN BUSINESS AND MOVES ITS HEADQUARTERS

Imperial Headwear, supplier of golf caps, is celebrating 90 years of business, as well its relocation from Denver to a larger 112,000-square-foot headquarters in Aurora, Colorado.

Company Chairman Garrett Stonehouse, whose Connecticut-based MCG Global LLC bought the 230-employee company a year ago, said the larger facility reflects an important milestone and continued commitment to Colorado.

"We bought Imperial just over a year ago with the mentality and focus on expanding the business," Stonehouse said. "We felt the heritage and the people were the most important things to continued great quality, and we didn't want to mess with any of those ingredients."

The Aurora facility is at 17101 E. Ohio Drive. Imperial's Denver facility at 5200 E. Evans Ave. had about 75,000 square feet of space.

Imperial was founded in 1916 making wool dress caps and later made wool military caps during World War II. Today, it generates about 75 percent of its revenue from the golf-cap business, which it entered in the 1950s. It also hopes to grow its hunting and fishing cap business.

While many cap makers have gone offshore, Stonehouse said Imperial prides itself on doing embroidery and finish work in Colorado and some cutting and sewing there as well. Imperial buys blank hats from manufacturers in Bangladesh, Vietnam and Sri Lanka.

Stonehouse wouldn't disclose annual revenues of the privately-held company, but did say they have increased 6 percent since his group bought the company. He said Imperial sold more than 2 million caps, visors and other hats last year.