In 2007, DENNIS acquired Larose School Uniforms. Founded in Memphis in 1978 by Lorraine and “Doodie” Larose to fund the college educations of their seven children, Larose School Uniforms grew steadily within the southeast US over the next three decades. By 2006, the company was supplying school uniforms to more than 150 accounts, thanks to the efforts of Lorraine’s sales-focused travels throughout the region. Larose School Uniforms also ran three successful retail locations in Tennessee and Alabama. A true family business, five of Lorraine and Doodie’s children and most of their fifteen grandchildren worked for the company over the years, culminating with daughters Danielle Stutts and Ivonne Larose becoming co-owners in 2002 after the passing of their father. They continued working closely with Lorraine until her subsequent retirement in 2009 at the age of 75.
Danielle and Ivonne were instrumental to the DENNIS-Larose partnership, using their experience to gracefully navigate the DENNIS Uniform brand into the southeastern US. With the acquisition of Larose, DENNIS was able to reach more schools in a new region of the country, developing our relationships and working to serve more students than ever before. The Memphis and Nashville retail locations are still in operation today, along with locations now in Birmingham and Huntsville, Alabama and Jackson, Mississippi.
Danielle managed operations for DENNIS-Larose partnered retail locations until 2019, and Ivonne continues to help DENNIS thrive and grow today in her current role of Vice President of New Business Development, a critical position looking toward business expansion. Larose School Uniforms and DENNIS have been wonderful partners because of our shared values – strong commitments to serving our communities of schools, parents and students with a family mindset.
After more than 100 years in business, we understand the importance of partnership, and we know DENNIS has benefited greatly from the experience and expertise of our colleagues. DENNIS has always been in the business of long-term relationships, and that’s an outlook we’ve adopted into the way we operate internally as well. We’re proud of our partners’ accomplishments and are happy that we’ve been able to continue to engage with the communities they’ve created. Our enthusiasm for working alongside and learning from our partner companies has allowed us to become what we are today – true uniform experts™!