Ed Marin considers his store, the Suit Outlet, a hidden secret of Oxnard. Located near the Rose Avenue exit from Highway 101, the warehouse showroom takes a little investigating to find.

The men's executive apparel store has a secret of its own: It started out as something else.

"Everybody thinks the store started first," Marin said. "It didn't. Executive Image Clothiers started first."

The business is a direct service, where Marin goes out to fit customers and offers them a selection of suits. He visits clients at their offices or homes.

Marin created the company in 1998 while holding down a management job. He had to work after hours and during lunch. His first office was a desk and phone in his garage.

Some customers were good at haggling him down to a low price.

"I lost money, but I just wanted the customer," said Marin, a Camarillo resident who used his credit cards to launch the business. "It was a lot of trial and error in the beginning."

Marin sought early guidance from his friend, Art Lewin, president of Executive Clothiers in downtown Los Angeles. Marin would listen to Lewin talk with clients and go out with him to meet customers.

Lewin said the important thing is discipline and dedication.

He likens the work to a hairdresser who knows exactly what the client likes.

Rather than having a customer walk into a store and buy whatever is on the rack, Lewin's approach is to know the person — including tastes, size and occupation — and steer them to suitable clothing.

"What makes a difference is that personalized touch," Lewin said.

Marin started by interviewing mills, companies and vendors to learn about the latest trends and how they supplied large department stores.

"Major department stores will try to buy the least expensive fabric and have it made at the least expensive mill for their margin," Marin said. "We'll get the more expensive fabrics, but you don't buy them at the time they come out. You buy them after they've all been sold. There are always extra rolls of fabric."

Marin soon had the recipe down to launch his business — buy expensive fabric at the right time and manufacture clothes at the right place.

"It's like making a casserole," Marin said. "If you put in the right ingredients, it's going to taste great."

The men's tailored clothing business, predominantly suits, brought in nearly $5 billion in the past year, up about 5 percent from a year ago, according to the NPD Group, a consumer and retail information company.

About six years ago, Marin combined his Executive Image Clothiers offices in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles and Camarillo into a single location, the Suit Outlet.

The store is a combination of wholesale and retail, while Executive Image Clothiers remains a direct service. Marin said the store draws the average businessman, as well as companies, corporations, professional athletes and studio clients, such as Fox and Disney.

Studios will request certain kinds of suits, and Marin will send them several to choose from.

"One of our unique niches is with the studios," Marin said. "Whatever they'll use on the sets is kept, and whatever is not used will come back brand-new."

There are usually about 1,000 suits on the racks at any given time. Prices range from $100 to $4,000, with custom-made suits at the higher end.

Marin said he hopes to carry more women's and children's suits by the end of the year.

Marin said the Suit Outlet is ready for expansion. All that is needed is the right opportunity. He is on a waiting list for a location at the Camarillo Premium Outlets, but the available spaces are either too big or too small.

"No matter how big we expand, my vision is wherever that store or outlet is, that there's a manager that takes care of everybody the way I'm taking care of them here in Oxnard," Marin said.

Lewin said he taught Marin his approach to the business, and then Marin took that knowledge and went his own direction. He said Marin's personality is what makes him successful.

"He's got that spark, got that enthusiasm, that pulls people in," Lewin said.

— Star staff writer Allison Bruce contributed to this report.