Tony Flowers and Christopher Laird plan to close Williams-Laird Fur Company at the end of February 2025, ending nearly 40 years in business. Flowers, the manager, and Laird, the owner, are pictured Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024, at the shop at Edgebrook in Rockford. (Photo by Kevin Haas/Rock River Current)

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — A local business that has outfitted Rockfordians with mink, sable and a variety of other fine furs for nearly four decades will close early next year.

Williams-Laird Fur Company, which is at the Edgebrook Shopping Center between Cork Keg & Spirits and Baker Street Burgers, will close Feb. 28 as its longtime owner Christopher Laird and longtime manager Tony Flowers retire from the fur business. The company will begin its store closing sale on Monday.

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Laird and his late wife Eva Williams-Laird founded the company 38 years ago at CherryVale Mall, and they moved to Edgebrook in 2011. Eva Williams-Laird died in November 2012 at the age of 74.

“Rockford has been good to me,” Laird told the Rock River Current. “Over 38 years people have become friends and family. I’ll miss that part of it, but I’m not going away. I’ll still keep in touch with everybody. I’m grateful for what they’ve done for me over the years. They’ve just supported me always.”

Fur Company offers a selection of fur coats, shawls, scarves, capes, stoles and other clothing made from natural mink, sable, rex rabbit, sheared beaver, sheared mink reversible and fox, among other animal furs.

“I have always prided myself on the fine quality furs we offer and the personalized service we’ve given to you. In greater Rockford, Fur Company is your furrier,” Laird wrote in a letter to customers. “When my wife, Eva Williams-Laird, and I ran the business together we dressed celebrities such as Michelle Williams, prominent political figures and most importantly – you.”

The company also offers repairs, cleaning, maintenance service, and storage. Its seamstress, Marisa Bernachea, has been with the store during its entire run, Laird said. Flowers has been the store’s manager for 16 years.

Customers could come in with old furs and have them refurbished into something new. For example, an old coyote coat that was outgrown was turned into a throw and two pillows, Laird showed in the store.

“Then we have fun. We design something,” Laird said. “You bring in grandma’s coat and we change it into a jacket or something new.”

Flowers and Laird also run a separate business, ACA Auto Brokers in Machesney Park. They’ll continue to operate that company after retiring from the fur business.

“As this year is coming to an end, it seems as though it is the right time for me to begin a new chapter in my life, retirement,” Laird wrote to customers. “As much as it saddens me to close our doors to the Rockford community, I find myself looking at the future.”

About | Williams-Laird Fur Company

Where: 1603 N. Alpine Road, suite, 117, Rockford

Hours: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Saturday (hours will be extended for holidays)

Phone: 815-397-7778

Facebook: @FurCompany

A fur coat hangs on the rack on Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024, at The Fur Company in Rockford. (Photo by Kevin Haas/Rock River Current)

This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas