National Hardwood Magazine - July 2012

Sky’s The Limit For

Sky’s The Limit For Texas Doors Cedar Hill, Texas—During a time when many companies are scaling back, reducing space and eliminating employees due to the economy, Texas Doors, located here, is plowing ahead with its growth plans and preparing for the expected recovery. Undeterred, the firm moved into a huge, new facility with its sister company in 2009, and in doing so gained efficiencies that it didn’t have previously. Texas Doors’ products are made from Hard and Soft Maple, Oak, Cherry and Hickory. Combined, the firm buys about 750,000 board feet of lumber annually, and also fulfills special requests for Alder, Beech, Cypress, pine and exotic woods. “Under our corporate umbrella we had two distinct companies that served different markets,” explained Jeff Elseman, Texas Doors’ operations manager. By combining Texas Doors and Woodmont Cabinetry under a single roof in a 100,000- square-foot location, the firms can now share manpower and equipment in a way that was virtually impossible when the two companies operated in separate plants. The move also gave Texas Doors, which started out in 1988 from a 15,000-square-foot shop, more room to change and grow. With 45 employees (or 110 total for both companies), BY BRIDGET MCCREA Texas Doors specializes in unfinished custom cabinet doors that its 15-person sales team sells to custom shops throughout the Eastern U.S. “We’ve been a regional company with a long reputation for quality and customer service,” said Elseman. According to Elseman, Texas Doors serves the volume customer as well as the smaller customers. “We have an extensive number of small to medium volume customers, and have preferred that over just a handful of larger accounts,” he said. “A large portion of the areas that we serve have been a little less affected by the economy than the overbuilt conditions of the metropolitan regions,” said Elseman. Credit Stanley Tidwell with creating a pair of companies that have managed to prevail through numerous economic cycles over the last 25 years. Already in the cabinet industry in the 1980s, Tidwell had the opportunity to supply doors to a local cabinet company. After achieving success with that particular customer, the entrepreneur branched out and started building cabinets and custom doors. “The business just grew from there,” said Elseman. Through its evolution, Texas Doors has managed to stay “fairly close” to its original market, although the firm has done its fair share of commercial projects. “We’ve done large scale commercial projects and projects involving prefinished doors,” he explained, adding that the recent move into a larger building will facilitate even larger projects in the future. “We wanted to expand our offerings and make pre-finished cabinet doors Please turn to page 38 Texas Doors’ products are made from Hard and Soft Maple, Oak, Cherry and Hickory. Combined, the firm buys about 750,000 board feet of lumber annually, and also fulfills special requests for Alder, Beech, Cypress, pine and exotic woods. 18 Hardwoods Have Workability

1 2 3 1. During a time when many companies are scaling back, reducing space and eliminating employees due to the economy, Texas Doors of Cedar Hill, Texas, is plowing ahead with its growth plans and preparing for the expected recovery. 2. The firm moved into a huge, new facility with its sister company in 2009, and in doing so gained efficiencies that it didn’t have previously. 3. Texas Doors is focused on being a custom cabinet shop, and Woodmont Cabinetry can now run its product down the former’s production line. 4. By combining Texas Doors and Woodmont Cabinetry under a single roof in a 100,000-square-foot location, the firms can now share manpower and equipment in a way that was virtually impossible when the two companies operated in separate plants. 4 JULY/2012 19