American woodmark

American Woodmark Corporation is a leading manufacturer and distributor of more than 600 semi-custom and stock cabinetry lines sold through independent dealers, new construction builders and

remodelers, Lowes and Home Depot. David Soyka reports on how this Virginia-headquartered company with nine manufacturing

facilities builds its business.

PROFILE • AMERICAN WOODMARK

INDUSTRY TODAY 32 INDUSTRY TODAY

AMERICAN WOODMARK • PROFILE

hirty-five years ago, Home Depot first opened its doors and revo-lutionized the home improvement industry with large warehouse-type retail operations that dwarfed the

size and selection of the average hardware store. Also in 1978, American Woodmark Corporation began manufacturing afford-able yet still fully featured and stylish kitch-en and bath cabinetry easily customized to fit the needs of most any remodeling project.

It was the start of a partnership that has experienced various ups and downs in the housing and remodeling markets, but one that has remained constant and true to both company’s founding principles of provid-ing top quality with reasonable pricing to achieve the highest customer satisfaction. It’s a tradition American Woodmark has extended to Lowes under its Shenandoah Cabinetry® and Shenandoah Value Series™,

major homebuilders through a network of builder service centers, dealer and distrib-utors under the Timberlake® nameplate, as well as the Waypoint™ Living Spaces brand, sold exclusively through indepen-dent kitchen and bath specialists. In total, the company sells more than 613 cabinet lines in a wide variety of material, finishes and styles, primarily for kitchens and baths, but also for specialty uses such as entertain-ment centers and bookcases.

According to Rob Adams, vice president of value stream operations, each brand is for the most part a distinct and separate line, though certain woods, styles, features and functionalities may be shared. In total, the company sells more than 613 cabinet lines in a wide variety of material, finishes

and styles, primarily for kitchens and baths, but also for specialty uses such as entertain-ment centers and bookcases.

American Woodmark is the third larg-est cabinet maker in the United States and has been named in multiple years to the Forbes’ 200 Best Companies List, as well as a Business Week Hot Growth Company. All of its products are certified by the Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers Association (KCMA) Environmental Stewardship Program as fully compliant with a broad range of air quality, product and process resource management, envi-ronmental stewardship and community standards. Primary raw materials include hard maple, oak, cherry, soft maple, hicko-ry lumber and plywood.

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American Woodmark cabinets are sold in Home Depot, while its Shenandoah brand is sold through

Lowes, Timberlake to builders and Wayside to kitchen and bath dealers.

TPROFILE • AMERICAN WOODMARK



Headquartered in Winchester, Va., American Woodmark operates nine man-ufacturing facilities located in Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia, as well as nine other builder service cen-ters across the country. The company has about 5,000 employees. During the

housing slump, American Woodmark scaled back from as many as 15 plants in operation, but with the recent recovery is expanding again with a $30 investment to add 100,000 square feet and 80 new jobs to its South Branch facility in Moorefield, W. Va.

Net sales for the company increased by 19 percent in the first fiscal quarter ending July 2014 compared to the prior fiscal year. Remodeling comprised 56 percent of sales during fiscal 2014, and

the remaining 44 percent from the new home market.

“We’re highly optimistic that the econ-omy is improving and the overall picture for the housing industry is more positive,” Adams said. “For the past few years, the remodeling sector, meaning primarily our sales through Home Depot and Lowes, has been flat. Nationwide, new construc-tion seems to have stalled a bit after a nice resurgence. Where we are seeing growth is in our dealer networks where the


AMERICAN DREAM BUILDERSAmerican Woodmark’s Shenadoah line of cabinetry, distributed exclusively through Lowes, is featured on the NBC television series “American Dream Builders.” Each of the 10 episodes that appeared in 2014 featured a competition between two contestants to design and renovate a variety of living spaces and home styles in a complete makeover project. Shenandoah kitchen and bath cabinets were used by all 12 competing teams to accomplish their design goals.




consumer is a little different. They tend to have higher income levels and more discretionary spending habits, so they’re usually a little ahead of the curve when the economy starts to improve. We’ve

expecting other consumers to start gaining the same confidence that it’s safe to start spending again.”

Looking at Consumer NeedsAdams adds that the company is carefully studying new consumer trends, partic-ularly among the younger Millennials generation. “We’re talking about 125

million potential customer with $30 billion of purchasing power,” he notes. “We’re doing focus groups and looking at research to fully understand and anticipate what this segment of the market is look-ing for in kitchen and bath cabinetry and what opportunities we can address.”

He adds, “We’re also taking a close look at cabinetry trends in Europe and


Asia. Styles from overseas have always eventually made their way here to the States, but we’re finding its happening faster than ever before. Whether it’s the Internet or the fact that the marketplace is more global-based than ever, we need to know what’s going on throughout the world because it’s going to be happening here much sooner than later.”

American Woodmark implements lean manufacturing and Six Sigma practices to makes both in-stock and semi-custom cabinets. “Our overriding goal is always operational excellence,” Adams points out.

However, even for its stock products, it maintains zero inventory as a Just In Time (JIT) manufacturer. Typical production

turnaround depends upon the sales chan-nel. “Generally for Lowes and Home Depot, it takes about 15 to 20 days to make the finished product. For new con-struction it runs about two weeks, though how fast we make them isn’t as important as delivering them when they want them; the key there is that builders don’t want the cabinets sitting around on site unless




they’re about ready to install them. For dealers, we quote 28 days. In this channel, customers don’t seem to mind waiting that long, but what we have found is that if we say the cabinets will be delivered in 28 days, by the 28th day they had better be there.”

Manufacturing is a combination of auto-mated and manual processes. “The chal-lenge for is that as improved technology accelerates, we have to train our workforce to keep up with. That’s why we’ve delivered over 556,000 hours of training to our peo-ple. We want them to have the necessary skill sets modern manufacturing demands. By creating value for our people, we create value in our products that are valuable to our customers.”

American Woodwork operates in a high-ly fragmented industry composed of sev-eral thousand national, regional and local manufacturers. Says Adam, “Our compet-itive edge is breadth and variety of prod-uct offering, expanded service capabilities, geographic reach and affordable quality.”

Case—or rather, cabinet—closed.

Headquartered in Winchester, Va.,

American Woodmark operates nine

manufacturing facilities totaling in Arizona, Georgia,

Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Tennessee,

Virginia and West Virginia, as well as nine

other builder service centers across the

country.





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American woodmark