Intelligencer Journal / Lancaster New Era; March 20, 2012
by Bill Clark

Gorman Distributors, a business new to Columbia Borough, has purchased and renovated a silk mill at 12th and Manor streets.

The fourth-generation family business was started as a grocery store on North Mulberry Street in Lancaster by Benjamin S. Gorman shortly after the turn of the 20th century. A Laundromat was opened by the family in the early 1960s across from the grocery store, at Lemon and Mulberry streets.

In 1963, Benjamin F. Gorman, son of the founder, started traveling to Harrisburg to pick up soap for the Laundromat. As other Laundromat owners got wind of what the younger Gorman was doing, they asked him to pick up supplies for them.

At that time, traveling to Harrisburg and back by way of small towns along Route 230 took the better part of a day. He decided to start a small side business with an inventory of laundry products in some rented garages.

Ben placed a snack vending machine in the front of the Laundromat and it became so popular that he started stocking candy, crackers and other snack items for distribution to vending machines at other businesses.

His nephew, Damian Gorman, came into the business in 1965.

Damian’s son, Benjamin J. Gorman, started with the business at 16 while still in Penn Manor High School. He stocked shelves and made deliveries and continued while he was a student at Millersville University.

“After graduation, I decided to go into industry but came back to the family business when Uncle Ben retired and the business was bought by my parents, Damian and Debbie, in 2004,” the 4th generation Gorman said.

While his parents remain owners, he serves as the company vice president and handles daily operations. Michelle, his wife, and Ann, his sister, work part time along with Jack Phelan, who helps with deliveries. Barry Oswald, his uncle, is a full-time employee.

The youngest Gorman, now 35, said, “We distribute in 48 states and (some) U.S. territories and are in the top six of coin vending distributors in the United States. Ninety seven percent of our business is redistributing laundry products with the other three percent devoted to providing and stocking vending items in a five-county area. Everything else is shipped by UPS.”

“We purchased a property on New Dorwart Street in Lancaster in 2008 with the intention to build and expand our business. But when the estimates started coming in, we realized that it was not financially feasible so we started to search for an alternative,” Ben said. “We needed at least 12,000-square feet and hopefully more and the price tag of over $1 million just didn’t work for us.”

The company suffered a setback when he was deployed to the Kuwait twice as a member of the U.S. Army Reserves. Now a captain in the reserves, he is a candidate for promotion to major.
“After multiple deployments, we were finally able to concentrate on the needed move,” Ben said.

“We purchased the Columbia site, which had been vacant since 2008, in October 2011, completely renovated the property and moved in for $600,000.”

Gorman said, “I didn’t know much about Columbia but during the renovations so many people stopped by and thanked us for what we were doing and expressed their concern about what was going to happen to the property.

“We found a home here, and we love it,” he said.

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