Ken Hewson asked the employees of Lambertson Industries for their ideas to get the company flying again after the recession took a swipe at the company's sales of stainless steel products for commercial and institutional kitchens.
Their answer office furnishings designed from stainless steel is generating important new revenues for the Sparks-based company.
When Hewson purchased the 50-year-old Lambertson Industries in October 2008, the company's sales of stainless steel sinks, tubs, dish tables, hoods and ventilation equipment seemed to be sailing right along despite the economic turmoil that had enveloped the nation.
"I did my due diligence before I purchased the company from the family of the founder, Ted Lambertson. I believed our business wouldn't taper off that much. After all, folks still have to eat and restaurants will continue to thrive. But in 2009, we got hit pretty good," he says. "We took about a 35 percent hit that year."
Faced with a crisis, Hewson, who holds a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Washington, and his staff decided to create office furniture, marketing it directly to businesses as well as their interior design consultants. Thus was born Kenrick Stainless Design which functions today as a subsidiary of Lambertson Industries.
The subsidiary's name, Hewson says, represents a combination of his first name and that of his sales manager, Eric Flickinger. "Twenty-five years ago, I took a marketing course. I remember the instructor saying you want hard consonants in a name so when people say it, it has immediate impact," he says.
Hewson says the company's shift to stainless furniture design came after someone noted the company already had all the production facilities necessary to make desks, credenzas, bookcases, shelves, and such.
"We took all the features of stainless steel the fact it was durable, required low maintenance and looked fantastic and the decision to fabricate high-end office furniture seemed to be an easy one. Our product line is bold and very contemporary, just what offices need."
Prior to 2009, Lambertson Industries derived nearly 70 percent of its revenues from standardized kitchen products, with the other 30 percent coming from custom orders. Today, those numbers are reversed.
Hewson says the shift reflects the closure of many restaurants during the recession. Any stainless steel product that needs to fit a particular space, however, must be custom-built and Lambertson gets a lot of that business.
The downturn also affected the company's decision to focus on design of furniture for offices rather than homes.
"It's never easy to sell furniture when you don't have a lot of new housing coming into the market," says Hewson. "That's why we are putting all our efforts into offices either home offices, offices for small businesses, or to firms that choose to relocate from one building to another. And to gain access, we are really focusing on people who do interior design for businesses."
Hewson and his staff are encouraged that when people see the product in person, they are almost always impressed.
"Our products grab people when they visit us," he says. "But a stainless-steel desk or credenza is difficult to really show in a catalog. They are difficult to describe. But when you stand next to one, it jumps out at you. We know we have something here."
Additional encouragement comes when Hewson searches the Internet to seek out out his competitors. "You can search the world over; there's nothing out there like this. There is no competition," he says.
The company also markets its stainless-stain furniture as a wise environmental choice. "Our product is as green as you can get," he says. "If you take this material 100 years from now, there isn't a recycle dealer who won't take all of it because the material is totally recyclable. You can't say that about a wood desk with a Formica top. It likely goes to the dump."
When he purchased Lambertson Industries, the company had 18 employees. The drop in revenue during 2009 caused Hewson to trim his crew down to a dozen people but their production is more versatile these days.
"The same people who weld up our sinks can weld up the desks and shelving and bookcases," he says. "We don't have to add anything else to make the furniture. From now on, it's all marketing and getting the word out across the country. That is our challenge today."
