Allow Me To Introduce Myself & My Companies

It’s a New Year, 2022! I am confident that we picked up lots of new and creative Jaftex fabric fans over the last year as the popularity of fabric has exploded with the Covid….and that is a good thing! The fabric part!

Welcome to all of our new fans and thanks for hopping aboard with team Jaftex (named after Jacob A Fortunoff “JAF”, my great grandfather).

With that, allow me to introduce myself and all my companies too.

I am Scott Fortunoff. I am the President and one of the 4th generation owners of all the Jaftex Companies, a 92-year-old family business, which currently includes: A.E. Nathan Co., Inc., The Blank Quilting Corp., Fabric Editions/3 Wishes, FreeSpirit Fabrics, Henry Glass Fabrics and Studio E Fabrics.

We also have two warehouses: G&S Fabrics (G for Greg and S for Scott) in Seneca, S.C. and Oxford Cutting and Finishing in Burlington, N.C. G&S is where we ship the majority of our bolted goods. Oxford is where we ship the majority of our precuts. We just bought Oxford late in 2021.

Interesting factoid: all the companies we own were purchased. None were created organically.

Our main headquarters are in New York City. This is where the Blank Quilting Corp., the Henry Glass Fabrics & the Studio E Fabrics teams are located when we aren’t locked down due to Covid. The FreeSpirit Fabrics team is located in Charlotte, N.C. A portion of the FreeSpirit team (credit and customer service) is located in Greenville, S.C. where the entire Fabric Editions/3 Wishes team is located. As you can imagine, we spend a good amount of time in the South.

My business partners are all family members. My father Robert (third-generation) has worked at the company for close to 60 years. He is still very involved with day-to-day operations. He and my older brother Greg are focused mainly on operations and management. Greg joined the company close to 10 years ago and it was a great addition to the team especially in light of my father moving closer to retirement…if that ever happens. In any case, there is plenty of work to go around for all…especially these crazy days. My sister Jill is involved too. She works in the credit department and helps whenever and wherever needed. Our entire Jaftex team includes around 150 people who we value dearly and couldn’t survive without.

Me, on the other hand, I am more the face of the company. I focus on selling, being silly on social media and sharing the insides and outs of the business with anyone wanting to hop on the Jaftex fabric business train. Over the last 4 or so years, I have made a concerted effort to put me, my companies, my family, my team and our fabrics in everyone’s face, figuratively speaking.

It’s a new world and consumers want to dig in deeper with companies now more than ever. They want to know the people. They want the behind-the-scenes. They want the inside scoop. They want to see the warehouses. They want to know the policies. They want to know what drives the company. They want to know what the company stands for. They want to see the fabric printed. They want to see the fabric packaged. And most of all, they want to know the secret sauce.

As such, we continue to put it all out there (minus the secret sauce) so everyone who enjoys fabrics can relish the whole experience from the inception of a fabric line until it gets into the ultimate consumer’s hands. Hopefully, this will make everyone appreciate their Jaftex fabrics even more than they already do.

That effort has served us well over the years in helping us to differentiate ourselves from our competition. It’s rare for a President of a company to put himself/herself out there like I do and I like it that way. That’s what people tell me anyway. Can you even name another President of a fabric company? Just sayin’.

I like to be different and I like to share too. I want to let you all in. It allows our customers and the ultimate consumers to feel like they are part of the team and/or part of the Jaftex family. This helps to create an even stronger bond between Jaftex fabric consumers/customers and our fabrics, our designers, our brands and our entire team.

These days, you can find all of our companies on the most popular social platforms like Facebook, Instragram and Pinterest. We welcome you to follow us in all those locations. More recently, we have expanded further into Tik Tok and Youtube. Let me just say that I am loving being on Tik Tok. It makes me feel young again…every little bit helps as I quickly approach my half-century birthday in December.

Other than that, I write a blog here at www.scottfortunoff.com that is posted every Monday before noon eastern time. Again, in staying with my mission to keep our fabric customers and consumers informed, I write about all aspects of the business and lots of other interesting stuff too. While you are here, it would be great for you to sign up to be informed about when I have new posts.

I hope this helped to provide a nice overview of me, my companies and my business. Join in on all the fun by following us wherever possible and you will continue to be enlightened about fabrics, our business, our designers, our team and the fabric industry. Not only will you be enlightened, but you will be thoroughly educated if you put in the time and pay close attention.

Welcome to the family or la familia as I like to call it on Facebook.

And with that, I say, “Peace” or “Peace out!” I always say that by the way!