ALEXANDRIA, Va., October 7, 2013—Mike Carter, president, Century Place Apparel, Charlotte, has received the Maglin/Biggie Associate Lifetime Achievement Award from TRSA in recognition of his exceptional personal service to the textile services industry and TRSA.
Presented with the accolade at TRSA’s Annual Conference Sept. 24 in Sonoma, Calif., Carter is a 30-year-plus veteran of supplying the industry. He is known for product development and support that enable textile service companies to exceed their garment rental and sales goals through more fashionable styles and fabrics.
Century Place Apparel is a TRSA Associate Member that manufactures garments these operators purchase to rent to their customers with laundry service or resell. The company supplies knit apparel to textile services and other garment marketers including retail brands and advertising specialty catalogs.
The award is named for Rudy Maglin and James Biggie, two pioneers who dedicated their lives to improving textile services performance and leadership within the industry. Recipients are nominated by their Associate peers and selected by the TRSA Associate Committee.
For TRSA, Carter has served on the Board of Directors (representing Associate members) and Associate Executive Committee. He has actively recruited operators to serve on the volunteer committees that guide association programs such as management education, professional development and research.
Carter was previously sales VP for Bernstein and Sons, Crystal Springs, Miss., where he created the textile services industry’s first rental-friendly knit polo shirt, hailed for maintaining its attractiveness, comfort and durability after dozens of washes in high-impact industrial-scale washers. In 2000, he became owner and president of Century Place Apparel.
A 1970 graduate of the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, he began his apparel career as a student, managing a small shipping warehouse for an infant wear company. He then joined Grenadier Knitwear, launching his career in polo shirts, manufacturing specialty items for resellers such as Catalina and Puritan.
