Abstract:
Elie Gut, a Swiss emigrant, opened a little zipper factory in New York in 1939. He later moved the company, Ideal Fastener Corp., to Oxford in 1966. Today, the company still family-owned and run by his son Ralph, has grown from a 25,000 square feet plant with six employees to 125,000 square feet one and 350 employees. Ideal has made everything from a 227-foot-long zipper to secure AstroTurf to zippers for closing surgical incisions.