Pratt & Company now open at Holiday Village Mall in Havre

The Holiday Village Mall in Havre is now home to a new apparel and design business, Pratt & Company, owned by Angela and Casey Pratt.

Casey Pratt said they were inspired once they saw a need in the community and an opportunity when Fivehead's, an embroidery business, closed recently.

"I had the chance to work in this industry a few years ago. And really enjoyed it, and thought it would be something that we wanted to do at a later date. So we kind of talked about it and tossed it around and at that time, it wasn't time to do that," Angela Pratt said.

"And then the opportunity happened to present itself when Fivehead's closed its doors just a little bit ago, they were good business and we hated to see them close, and thought now was our time to give it a shot," she continued.

Casey Pratt said Havre has many thriving businesses, and Pratt & Company caters to those businesses quite a bit, doing custom embroidery, screen printing, different uniforms and things for those businesses.

He said they make hats, jackets, all kinds of things. Pratt & Company also caters to the individual for one-off items.

"Angela and I have both always been creative, love working with our hands. I love creating and making things. We have design backgrounds. That was my major in college, ... graphic design. And I actually have a daughter who's going into that right now through (Montana State University in) Bozeman, so we like to think we even inspired our children a little bit," he said.

"With her being in school, she's really getting the cutting edge of all the technology that's out there. And so she gets to kind of tutor us to keep us up to date on what's going on with new technologies for InDesign and things like that," he continued.

He said they did a lot of research on some of the newer processes that are out there, such as a vinyl printer, which can print vinyl directly on to a transfer that can be put right onto a garment which makes it a lot easier to do single pieces.

Pratt & Company can also quickly do multicolor pieces. He said Pratt & Company also has a laser engraver and cutter. He said the business can engrave not just garments, but hats and jackets, belts, any kind of leather products, cell phone cases, luggage, just about anything.

"What makes us special, set apart is some of the specialty equipment that we have, we decided to make an investment into equipment that can help us do processes quickly and get things out quickly," he said.

"We also, with our design background, we offer the design services so we can help you develop your logo, help you redesign logos, refresh things, bring them more up to date, we've done that a lot for many businesses and organizations here," he continued.

He said the feedback has been very positive, saying it led to more T-shirt sales to one business than ever before.

He said the business originally started out of their home before they got a storefront. The store in the mall opened during the second week of May, and then the Pratts were personally impacted by COVID-19.

"I was in the hospital the weekend we were supposed to be opening, and, luckily, I was able to pull through. I was in there for a few days, I came out and then from complications with COVID there were a few times I had to make hospital stays and so it kind of set our timeline back a little bit," he said.

"We stayed open, Angela was here, she was able to to push through with a lot of help from our community.We have family, we had friends that came and helped us. My in-laws, Angela's parents, Randy and Julieann Rigggin, have been just invaluable at that time in helping us out and have been our whole lives," he said.

He said the feedback about the business has been positive and expressed his appreciation for the community.

He added that their daughter Havre Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Julea Robbins has been a big help in general and with helping the business become a member of the chamber.

He said he and Angela hope the business will continue to grow and that they can provide jobs for the community as business continues to pick up.

"We love this community, we love what we do here. We love being involved, like I said with MAT and with other things," he said.

He said they hope to get embedded here as business owners also and then be able to give back, through philanthropy.

"We have a couple of boys that go to the Boys and Girls Club. We'd love to be able to continue to support them with donations and things and we hope that the business thrives enough so we can continue to do that in a larger and larger fashion," he said.