Focus on Fixtures

By Anthony G. Noel

As Rob Sundermier recalls it, the circumstances which first thrust him into ownership of a custom woodworking business were less than auspicious.

"The company for which I was plant manager was sold from a private owner to a large firm, " the 38-year-old said. "Shortly before the actual transaction took place, two of the owner's sons told me what was happening."

They also said, "We're going to start something on our own and we'd really like to see you start something on your own, because we could help each other out."

That was October 1989, shortly after Sundermier had moved into a new house. "We spent most of our savings to put in a macadam driveway in August. In addition, I had a couple of rental properties and two of my three tenants had just decided to move out. So I had just taken on a $1,100 monthly mortgage, lost $850 in rentals and only had $500 in the bank."

At that point, he said his reaction to the prospect of starting his own business was, "I was scared. I had always seen myself 'getting by' in business, but I had reservations because I wanted to succeed if I tried it."

In the end, it was the advice of his accountant, whom Sundermier also considered a friend, that helped him decide what to do.

"He asked me, "What do you have to do right now?'" Sundermier said. "I didn't know if it was a trick question! The only thing I could think was, 'I have to go find a job!'

"He then said, 'If you start a business and in three or four months it's not meeting your expectations, what are you going to have to do?'

"I said, 'I'll have to go get a job,' and he said, 'So take the chance!'"

Sundermier did take that chance, with good results. His company, Innovative Cabinetry in Oaks, PA, makes high-end store fixtures and displays, many of them for the company formed by the two sons of Sundermier's former employer. While business is now more successful than Sundermier ever hoped it might be, there were tough times in the beginning. "There were times when I was taking cash advances from my personal Visa card to make payroll." he said.

Never having made an "official" company plan, Sundermier did do some rough calculations shortly after starting the company which he said left him "scared to death."

"I figured I had to make $300,000 in total sales just to tread water that first year," he said. "I wasn't concerned about doing the work. I've always felt that if somebody could draw me a picture, I could build it. That was always easy for me. I didn't mind a bit.' Understandably so. Sundermier was chosen as the best student cabinetmaker in 1976, while still a high school junior. He won Stanley Corp.'s Golden Hammer Award in a competition for the top vocational-tech students in his state.)

But he still worried about "where $25,000 a month in sales was going to come from, consistently, to meet that $300,000 in sales."

As it turns out, his fears were unfounded. "In our first year, we did $440,000 in sales. S I was very pleasantly surprised,' he said. Subsequent years have been equally strong, with $726,000 in 1991 and continuing growth through 1995 when sales reached $2 million.

Sundermier credits two factors for putting his shop on the fast track to success: The jobs generated by the two brothers who suggested he start the shop in the first place and, oddly enough, the poor business climate of the early '90s.

"1990, 1991 and 1992 were probably some of the worst years in this industry ever, which worked to my benefit," he said. "A lot of our equipment, probably 80 percent, was bought at auctions."

Taking advantage of that situation allowed Innovative to buy much of its major equipment with cash, eliminating the costs of financing such purchases. As a result, "We're not leveraged at all," Sundermier said. "We have zero interest expense."

By 1992, sales were $1.1 million and in 1993 Sundermier did purchase more equipment, this time much of it new. Included were a Scheer CNC panel saw and point-to-point boring machine from Richard T. Byrnes Co. Inc.

"It's always exciting to experience growth at a faster pace than you had imagined," Sundermier said, "but there is always that challenge to maintain control."

Keeping things under control at Innovative is a team effort, according to Sundermier, which includes everyone from managers to the 22 shop employees. In the store fixture market especially, which is perhaps the facet of the woodworking industry most notorious for its "I-need-it-yesterday" kind of atmosphere, Sundermier said that he couldn't overstate the value of the team approach his employees take.

"I find myself 'robbing Peter to pay Paul' more often than I'd like in the shop, because we often take someone from one department to help in another one that's under the gun. But that's the great thing about my employees -- they're versatile. The people in the laminating department also can build or help out in finishing."

In addition, "if someone gets tired of looking at the same wall all day long, we can shift them to another department for a day or two so they'll have a break," Sundermier said. But he added that such switching requires very careful organization and they try to keep it to a minimum.

Having a team spirit generates a good working atmosphere, Sundermier said. "I'm thrilled that we've been able to grow to the number of people that we have and still maintain a very low level of authority on the floor. There's enough appreciation for what we're doing that we don't need any 'dictators.' We don't need any whips and lion tamers or any of that stuff. Everybody sincerely wants to do their best every day."