Cabinet Dealers Get One Supplier Across Three Brands

WF Cabinetry Brands said Monday it is consolidating its three cabinet labels into a single dealer relationship. The Alexander City, Ala., group owns WoodHarbor Custom Cabinetry, Countryside Cabinets and Wellborn Forest, and it plans to keep each brand's identity and product line while sharing manufacturing and technology resources.

The pitch to dealers: one supplier that covers the full price range. WoodHarbor sits at full-custom luxury. Countryside and Wellborn Forest both work the semi-custom tier, so a dealer can quote a value-oriented remodel on Countryside and move the same customer up to WoodHarbor when the scope grows, without opening accounts at several unrelated factories. When customer needs evolve, dealers can shift a project across brands to match the design and the price point, the company said. The lineup gives dealers more ways to serve remodeling clients and builders.

WF said the platform reaches more than 1,000 active dealer partners nationwide. The three brands combine more than 124 years of manufacturing history and more than 540,000 square feet of U.S. production.

The investment is going into manufacturing and product development, with the goal of making each brand easier for dealers to work with and creating more opportunities for the independent dealer community, WF said. Dealer relationships stay at the center of the growth plan, protecting the responsiveness and craftsmanship that have defined the brands for generations. WF calls the combination "America's premier multi brand cabinetry platform."

Nick Billig, WF's chief executive officer, said getting bigger has to come with more support, not less.

"The cabinetry business has always been a relationship business and getting bigger should never mean losing sight of that," Billig said. "What makes WF different is our ability to bring dealers the choice and capabilities of a larger platform while still being personal, responsive and accessible."

David Goldblatt, executive vice president of sales and marketing, said dealers keep asking for the same two things. Wider choice and a named contact when a project runs into trouble. The sales team's job, he said, is to "take ownership of finding a solution" when a product need or a design challenge arises. When a request needs a different way of thinking, Goldblatt said, dealers know WF will "work with them to get it done."

WF says its teams work as creative partners, listening to the vision behind a project and collaborating on the right fit. Designers get a wider design space as well, free to create the right solution for the home rather than designing around the limits of one brand's line.

Billig said the platform will be judged on whether dealers and designers are stronger for working with WF, not on the company's own size. WF's growth, he said, depends on dealers winning more projects and serving customers better. "We will grow right alongside them," he said.