ELK GROVE VILLAGE, Ill. — Supplier Foster-Stephens Inc. will celebrate its 75th anniversary in the industry next week. Today, the widow and daughter of its founder, Bill Jones, operate the company.
Foster-Stephens started in 1936 when someone abandoned a set of printed drycleaning posters at Westlake Press in Chicago. A salesman there at the time, Elmer “Bill” Jones bought and resold the posters to area drycleaners—so successfully that he incorporated the company on March 11, 1936.