CLOTHIERS TAKING OFF; RELAXED APPROACH BRINGS RESULTS.

Byline: Enrique Rivero Daily News Staff Writer

Richard Hirsch and John Paul Beltran think they've hit on a winning management philosophy for their women's apparel manufacturing company: Create an enjoyable, relatively low-stress environment and everyone will work in peak form.

``Many times when you talk about something like this it sounds like a bunch of baloney, but it works,'' said Beltran, 44, co-owner of John Paul Richard Inc. ``People do better when they're having a good time. People do a better job when the world isn't on top of their shoulders.''

They may be on to something.

The 2-year-old, privately held company racked up nearly $46 million in sales last year and has operated in the black since January 1997, about six months after its birth, according to Hirsch, 45.

``We're very much on track in 1998 to do $80 million (in sales),'' he said.

The women's sportswear maker's success was just affirmed in another way. It topped the list of the country's 100 fastest-growing small businesses in the June issue of Entrepreneur magazine.

The survey, done in conjunction with Dun & Bradstreet, focused on companies founded no earlier than 1995, with sales exceeding $1 million in 1997 and meeting the Small Business Administration's definition of a small business, said Maria Anton, senior managing editor for the Irvine-based business magazine.

John Paul Richard Inc. outranked a host of high-tech and biotech firms, which typically head the list, Anton said.

``Here it's an apparel manufacturer - that's a very entrepreneurial, accessible business,'' she said. ``This company was able to make a high ranking, where normally you see only tech companies.

``So we were very excited about that,'' she added.

Hirsch and Beltran have a long history in the clothing business and as working partners.

In 1974 Hirsch had founded Melrose, a Chatsworth-based women's clothing manufacturer that he sold in 1986 to St. Louis-based Kellwood Co. He stayed on as an employee and, together with Beltran - who had joined Melrose in 1984 - ran the company until 1996.

``Then we decided that we had had enough of the big business, corporate life, and the entrepreneurial style sounded very appetizing to us,'' Hirsch said.

The pair left Melrose and started John Paul Richard Inc. with about $1.5 million in cash and a $1 million loan.

From the beginning, the company relied on contacts and relationships with the domestic and overseas contractors, fabric suppliers, sweater knitters and others with whom Hirsch and Beltran had worked in prior years.

``It's always a good policy never to burn bridges,'' Hirsch said.

The company's clothing is sold at big department stores like Macy's, J.C. Penney, Sears and Mervyns and at specialty stores throughout the United States.

Something else that keeps workers happy: Six key managers own a percentage in the company as equity partners, something that Hirsch said doesn't happen often enough in a large corporate structure. Many had worked at Melrose.

``They feel they are in fact owners of the company, and they treat the company as if it were their own,'' he said, adding that he and Beltran are the company's majority owners.

That isn't the important thing for design director Marilyn Fralin, one of those equity partners.

Instead, it's the working environment that she values. Hirsch and Beltran know what to expect from her and she knows what they expect, which she said gives her the creative freedom she needs to do her job.

Also, she knows many John Paul Richard employees from Melrose, where she had worked for 12 years, until about 1995. And John Paul Richard being a smaller company, there isn't the backstabbing, cutthroat politics that can make life in a big corporation so unpleasant.

``There's a comfort level - everybody gets along,'' she said.

The company has plans to expand soon and will probably have to move to a larger facility. The pair say their company's roots are planted firmly in the Valley area.

``We're big believers in the Valley,'' he said. ``We've always been here.''

BIG BOOTSTRAPPERS

John Paul Richard Inc. wasn't the only area business to make Entrepreneur magazine's list of the country's fastest-growing small businesses. Two others had enough sizzle to earn them spots on the list of the nation's hottest. They are:

RANK COMPANY HQ BUSINESS 1997 SALES (x)

1 John Paul

Richard Inc. Chatsworth Women's apparel $46.0

48 Rankserve Newbury Park Copier products 3.25

71 PathNet Cancer testing

Institute Van Nuys and research 2.32

(x) In millions

SOURCE: Entrepreneur Magazine

CAPTION(S):

Photo, Box

PHOTO (Color) Richard Hirsch, left, and John Paul Beltran are majority owners of Chatsworth-based women's apparel maker John Paul Richard.

Bob Halvorsen/Daily News

BOX: BIG BOOTSTRAPPERS (see text)