Watch the Video on Custom Cabinets (Wellborn Cabinets)
HOST: Angela, tell us a little bit about Wellborn and their products.
ANGELA: Okay. Wellborn Cabinet is a family-owned business, forty-five years old, and we're located in Alabama. As far as the cabinetry, we are a frame cabinet product and we do focus to the residential market, complete with a product line that is very, very broad for both new home construction and remodeling.
HOST: Now my understanding is your product is in the HGTV Dream Home this year. Tell us what has that meant to you and what is the reaction from the public?
ANGELA: The HGTV Dream Home has been an absolute success for Wellborn. We have had our feelers calling us about the amount of traffic increase into our showroom with consumers coming in requesting our product, because they went online, they saw the Dream Home. Certainly through our website and in conjunction with the home, it's drawing traffic into our showroom as well as an increased lead generation of about twenty percent for our product line.
HOST: Wow! Very nice! The builders show -- International Builders' Show -- is a pretty big showcase. Is there something that Wellborn is coming out with this year to show at the new builders show?
ANGELA: With our product lines -- We have increased our product launch by eighty-six percent. That is a huge increase. In fact it's one of our largest product launches we've had in the history of our company.
HOST: Does that mean colors or styles or -- ? What are you changing?
ANGELA: It is a combination, one being about ten new door profiles. And in that ten profiles a strong focus on contemporary, because we know -- We all know the trend of the style -- contemporary -- that is happening in the industry and the consumers wanting that look. So out of those ten door styles, very contemporary looks. Even the door profiles that have a profile, the center panel is a solid wood center -- flat -- creating here again a clean look across cherry and maple.
But I will tell you we have added some launches in oak, because there is a request for a new look of oak -- and it's the straight grain of oak. And we came out with some new doors that have the straight grain of oak versus the old style -- the rotary grain -- cathedral grains that were in the oak. So that's been displayed very well here at our show. The second way we've increased our product line is through a variety of finishes --
HOST: (OVER) Right, that's what everybody sees.
ANGELA: That's what they're looking for -- and still strongly in the browns. We have added three new brown finishes, all with and without a glaze, and each of those across our family of five wood species as well. So therefore the combination of selection has just exploded not only in the stains but paints. And you know that. You see paints -- everywhere.
HOST: (OVER) -- a lot of painted cabinets these days.
ANGELA: They are. And we have the creams and we have the whites and the black paints. But this year we've added the -- It's a gray painted tone. We're calling it pebble. And we have pebble with and without a glaze. And we also added a family of green -- sage pretty much represents the color. It's a really warm green with and without a glaze and complements very well if the desired look is to complement it with a stain. It goes really well with our new brown warm stains as well.
HOST: (OVER) Yeah, a lot of people have painted islands and stained cabinets. But speaking of "green" -- It's the buzzword these days. What is Wellborn doing in the green realm of building?
ANGELA: Green is very important. It's very important today to builders, to consumers. We get a tremendous amount of calls from consumers: Are we a green product? Wellborn is a green product. Our marketing slogan for it is, "The Green Choice for Cabinetry for Your Product." We are certified through accreditation. (HOLDING UP PLAQUE) And this is through the KCMA, which is our industry for kitchen cabinetry. Their program is called Environmental Stewardship Program and we are accredited under this program.
We actually obtained accreditation by several ways. And one very strong reason that we are accredited is the way we use our waste at our factory. Wellborn is fully integrated. We make cabinetry from the log all the way from the tree. We bring it in -- we have a full mill operation -- and we make all of our own doors. With that, as you can expect, there's a lot of waste. Throughout our entire factory is a dust collection. And we have our boiler system that reproduces steam, and in that what we're actually creating is the energy back into our finishing system to support our factory, (HOST: Very innovative) which is really about the equivalent of about five thousand homes a year of electricity that we would be having to purchase but we're actually regenerating. So our co-regeneration plants are doing that.
We're working with our vendors to buy green product as well.
HOST: And that's -- As homebuilders, that's what I'm looking for suppliers like you that have some kind of green accreditation that I can also get points for in my green building program. (ANGELA: Exactly) Thanks! Very interesting! [END]
Watch the Video on Custom Cabinets (Wellborn Cabinets)
| 
