Progress: Cabinetry operations expanding

I never set out to start building custom cabinetry. I had worked previously as an installer for companies that handled all the sales process. What I thought I understood about the front-end business of cabinetry sales was completely off-base. It wasn’t until I was working as a self-employed kitchen installer and designer that I learned what the cabinet showroom experience was really like and why it wasn’t a good fit for many of my clients. To even be able to get my hands on quality cabinets to install for my customers, I had to re-imagine the cabinet-buying experience.

The Showroom Experience: The Consumer

Buying cabinets for the past several decades actually works quite a bit like buying a new car. The consumer enters a showroom belonging to a cabinet dealer. There are many different models with a ton of different options available. There are add-ons that seem like they’re probably a good idea, but it’s really anyone’s guess if you don’t deal with cabinetry every day. Some may be great value-added features, such as soft-closing hinges. Others are more akin to the clear-coating of a car’s undercarriage, or an extended warranty from a car dealership. Are they really worth the investment? Will they really make a proportionate impact on the client’s daily life? They’re being pitched by a person, whom despite the commitment to quality and best intentions, is several steps removed from any actual cabinet-making or installation.

The Other Customer: The Builder

Purchasing cabinetry directly as a contractor for a client’s project is fairly similar, but a little less refined. The mark-up is still massive. Forget wholesale pricing, but you may be allowed a 10% margin to mark up to the end user. It’s like trying to buy a new sedan; you must become a dealer, there are a limited number of these opportunities available, and they all require a substantial investment and overhead. After digging deeper into this business, it became clear that there was a massive mark-up in cabinetry due to the high overhead business model that dealers are operating under, to cover overhead that funds services that most clients simply don’t care about.

Do we really need a showroom?

Most of my customers were able to narrow down their options from sample finishes or photographs and mock-ups for the cabinet fronts and layout. While it’s nice to have options, most of my customers already had an idea of what basic color, door style, and layout they were after. By drawing up a good 3D model and providing sample doors and specifying the hardware that I knew was the best fit for their needs, they were able to choose cabinetry that they would love for decades to come at a price that a working family could afford. If the client would prefer to walk around their potential kitchen project, we can even make that happen now using virtual reality technology!

It’s all pretty much white, shaker, and frameless anyway.

The kitchens I’m installing these days are almost all white, shaker-style cabinets with edge-banded, frameless cabinet boxes. If they’re not white they’re probably grey, or walnut, or rift-sawn white oak. A few maple. A few hickory. A few ebony-stained maple or alder. There are outliers, but rarely do I install anything more adventurous than navy blue or inset the doors and drawer fronts into a face frame.

If that’s what a client is after, why on earth do they need to pay a premium to walk through a showroom filled with cherry, knotty alder, high gloss red, tempered glass and aluminum tambour doors? And should those white shaker cabinet consumers be paying the same mark-up for the easiest-to-build 5-piece door one can possibly make? I don’t think so.

Buying Direct

There are direct-to-consumer cabinetry lines that come ready-to-assembled, colloquially referred to as “RTA” cabinets. These lines range from OK to excellent, but require more labor to install due to assembly, and they’re really only as good as their installer is able to make them. Since the cabinet’s joinery is only as good as its installation, and only a square as the assembler makes it, labor costs are higher than most other lines. We’ve tried a number of different companies providing ready to assemble cabinetry. Some of it’s great, and some of it’s junk. All of it is still coming at a substantial mark-up. That limits our ability to compete with direct pricing, and our labor bids may raise eyebrows. With the errors that some of these companies make, sometimes we end up re-making some or all of the cabinetry anyhow to hit our promised delivery dates. That seems a bit like madness if you ask me.

Manufacturing in house

The next option though is even crazier. It would mean a substantial capital investment, probably from a third party. It requires industrial real estate, industrial machinery, skilled employees, a team to handle logistics/delivery, an installation team, a sales and design team, and a showroom of some sort. This would probably mean partnering with other established showrooms to eventually become dealers. Then we’re just cogs in the machine we started to reform. We would be processing sheet goods and hardwood lumber into cabinetry. Finishing, assembling, packaging, and delivering cabinetry. Most shops don’t make their own doors though. Did you know that? Most don’t build their own drawer boxes either! We would be building the carcass in a shop, installing other companies’ doors and drawers, and selling it as a complete package.

After investing in this type of operation, the return on investment takes years to recoup. Giving away equity in the company to investors would over-rule the leadership of the firm and limit our options to pivot as the industry changes. Re-tooling to get ahead of new trends is extraordinarily expensive. Selling used equipment bought new means taking a substantial hit on re-sale price, 50% at least, but often 10 cents on the dollar for some items. Running used equipment, especially temperamental items like edge-banders and CNCs can mean down time for specialty parts and repairs that can be extremely costly, both in direct costs and in indirect costs such as production delays. That just sounds insane if you ask me.

Building on Site

Carpentry tooling has improved so much, and spray finishing equipment and water-based finishes have improved so much in the past few years, that it’s possible now to produce shop-quality cabinetry built and finished on site. Custom sizes aren’t an issue; they ‘re cut to fit the space. Denting and scuffing finishes during shipment isn’t an issue; the finishes are applied by professionals after all the cabinetry is built an installed. Touch-ups are a breeze.

Lead times for the actual build process are longer than a factory cabinet. Doors, drawers, drawer fronts, and finished panels are ordered after cabinet is built and installed, so a perfect fit requires less planning and is less error-prone, but takes longer to become a finished product. The good part is that countertops can be installed once the cabinet boxes are built and installed. That means the sink can be plumbed, appliances can go in, and the dishes can be washed somewhere other than the bathtub! In reality, the lead time is the same or shorter than any other cabinet company, but you get your boxes installed while the rest of the parts are in production.

A New Way to Build.

What we’re exploring now is a RTA/site-built hybrid using new technology that allows us to “knock down” the cabinets after they’re assembled and check for fit and finish, then re-assemble them quickly on-site and install them. We have trade partners in Denver and regional operations that can provide door and drawer fronts that rival what any larger manufacturer can provide. We can build closet systems very efficiently for a price that rivals any of the big national companies operating in town. And we can do all this while providing custom sized products that will fit any tight space without special order waits or special order prices.

So, in short, we’re listening to our customers to innovate and meet their needs in novel, efficient, cost-effective ways by leveraging a revolutionary supply chain and cutting edge machinery. The first big push will be our closet system, Elytra. Available in paint-ready versions for new construction and DIYers, as well as all-laminate versions that are turn-key ready from install day, with the finishing touches installed 2-4 weeks later. You really should give us a shot if you’re after quality without the showroom experience.

I mean, let’s be honest…wouldn’t you rather have a Colorado Closet?