Britt Fulmer sells his Gentry Ltd but will remain at the business

Gentry Ltd owner Britt Fulmer was talking with his friend David Mitchell, an accountant, when Mitchell asked what the 63-year-old Fulmer’s plans are for his Waterfront business.

“I said, ‘Boy, Dave, everybody’s asking me. Do I look that old?’ I looked in the mirror. What’s happening to me?”

That led to a conversation that led Fulmer to sell the 53-year-old business, which he’s owned for 42 years, to Mitchell’s sons.

Parker Mitchell will run the business. Grant Mitchell, who lives in California, is an investor.

“And the best part for me is that I’m not going anywhere,” Fulmer says.

“I was so excited and thrilled that Britt didn’t want to just hand me the keys and take off,” Parker Mitchell says. “He’s going to continue to create so much value here.”

Pizza Hut co-founder Frank Carney was opening a strip center on Rock Road when he decided to start Gentry, which grew out of a store that Dan Goldschmidt had.

Eleven years later, he sold the store to Goldschmidt and Fulmer, and in 1994, Goldschmidt sold to Fuller.

“You’re the young guy. You should be running this business,” Goldschmidt said.

“I thought, you know, I need to do the same thing here,” Fulmer says.

“I’ve taken it as far as I can. I mean I could maintain and then when I decide I want to hang it up, just . . . put a going-out-of-business sign on the door, but why do that? We’ve been in Wichita for 53 years. Why not maintain that good name . . . with a young entrepreneur who can continue to grow it?”

Mitchell says he wants to make younger men feel comfortable shopping there.

“They get a feel that it’s an older men’s store, so I want to help Britt when we go to market . . . bring some of that younger, contemporary men’s professional wardrobe back.”

Fulmer says that “in order to grow, we need the young Parkers in our community — the young bankers, the young lawyers, the young doctors, the young businessmen that are interested and serious about the way their appearance is and understand the importance of that.”

Fulmer and Mitchell have several new ideas, such as possibly doing pop-up stores in cities around Kansas that no longer have men’s specialty shops.

They also may increase the focus on their tuxedo business.

“It could be a huge business,” Fulmer says.

They may even partner with someone to open another men’s salon like the Waterfront used to have.

“Cross-flow traffic was great for both,” Mitchell says.

He also is going to help increase the emphasis on social media.

“When I got down here in ’76, I knew exactly what to do,” says Fulmer, who has a degree in advertising.

He says he could run an ad about a sale and people would be waiting outside his door when he opened.

“Now, it doesn’t work like that.” Fulmer says. “Now, this social media stuff has me flummoxed. . . . That’s not my deal.”

Gentry is still very much his “deal,” though.

“It’s my social life. It’s what I do for fun,” Fulmer says. “It’s what I do for intellectual stimulation. I love what I do, and so I didn’t want to get out of it.”

He’ll now have more time, though, such as for his out-of-state grandchildren and his band, Deja Vu.

“I still like to play rock ’n’ roll,” Fulmer says.

Mitchell grew up in Wichita and used to work at Gentry while he was in college. He started in late 2004 and helped with the store’s move to the Waterfront.

Mitchell also worked in several capacities at Vornado, including in sales and marketing.

“I really got a lot of good experience in . . . business operations,” he says.

Mitchell also models with Models and Images and is a familiar face around Wichita.

Fulmer says “business has been solid.” He says the community needs to know there’s been a change.

“I’ve felt like this has kind of been my baby for so many years. I’ve nurtured it, I sacrificed for it. I’ve been here for it. I’ve loved it. And it’s taken good care of me.”

Now, Mitchell can grow it, Fulmer says.

“As long as I can provide value for the company, keep me,” Fulmer says he told Mitchell. “I don’t want them to be hamstrung with an old guy.”

And if Mitchell needs to tell him it’s time to go, Fulmer says it’s “nothing personal.”

It’ll be “for the good of the baby,” Fulmer says.

“You gotta take care of that baby.”

This story was originally published September 5, 2018 at 6:01 PM.