Dennis Oz: Welcome back to the remodeler success podcast. I’m your host Dennis Oz and today We have a special episode for all of you guys who love innovation and quality in cabinetry We are going to chat with someone who is , the names, I’m going to introduce him in a minute, but he’s been a key player in transforming how cabinets are made and sold across, not just in the U.S. but also international too. So he’s been also behind the scenes of most of the major Cabinetry companies and uh all these driving all these new technologies and strategies that really shaped our industry so from for example managing the rollout of frameless and all plywood cabinets to Leading sales to uh on a global scale So he’s done it all and now uh, he is here to share his journey and hope his insight with us Please welcome the general manager of eurocraft cabinetry greg greg adversaries greg.

Welcome to the show 

Joseph Edwards: Well, thank you, Dennis. I appreciate the opportunity. 

Dennis Oz: Oh, yeah. Great. I’m so excited to have you here because, uh, every time that I really host, like, pioneer people just like you who spent decades in the industry, it’s, it’s very excited for me. I’m sure it’s also very, uh, you know, brings a lot, a lot of excitements to our audience as well.

So let’s start with you. Could you please introduce a little bit of yourself, your background, uh, to our audience? 

Joseph Edwards: I always hesitate to give how much background because it would be older than dirt, but, uh, I essentially have over 40 years experience in the cabinet industry and starting out as a young age, like many of my.

Fellow designers and, and cabinet people, uh, installation, uh, my father was in the cabinet business, a builder and developer. And so I started out early age doing installations, doing millwork, progressed from that into, uh, doing, uh, Cabinets and sales for a lumber company and then more into retail and that grew into regional management and then domestic international sales.

And then, uh, most recent history, the last 10 years, uh, worked on developing plants for frameless and, uh, was real fortunate, uh, to have an opportunity to build a plant that was in Greenville, South Carolina. And wireframe it together. Unfortunately, at the time that it was starting out in the sales area, we went into covert and the company went under a equity change in ownership and all of a sudden I had an open opportunity to go work somewhere else.

So, I was fortunate to match up with a software company at that period of time that developed B2B websites, B2C websites and do e commerce structuring and met a lot of different companies through that venture for about a year. And at the time, uh, it worked out to join with a company that, uh, or with the group that was starting Eurocraft.

Um, they wanted somebody that had experience and, uh, putting a plant together in this type of product. And I joined them two and a half years ago. So I landed here and very happy with it. A very good plant, very good people to work with. 

Dennis Oz: Great. Thank you so much. It’s, it’s, it’s a pleasure to have you here.

Since you mentioned Eurocraft cabinetry, let’s talk about them. Um, let’s talk about their key features that really gives Eurocraft cabinetry a little bit of like a competitive edge. Uh, from all other candidates products on the market. What do you think that the key features are? 

Joseph Edwards: Well, the strongest feature, uh, we’re able to achieve.

I’ve got two price points and our value price point, which is designed to be an RTA cabinet. We do import. And we do instru, uh, distribution of that product. So we’ve got distribution, uh, as a simple process of shipping a box as an RTA. Uh, we brought in inventory of doors. We have a white high gloss. We have a slim white shaker painted.

Uh, we can ship a whole RTA kitchen out in less than one business day, so we’ve got an advantage of being able to ship quickly. Where our distinctive difference is, we offer 33 different panels and finishes, uh, that we maintain in inventory here in our plant. Uh, we have Hi Gloss, we have SuperMatte, We have TFL finishes and a customer can pick what color they want.

And we marry that up with our stock box that we maintain. And I can ship in one week or less, a whole kitchen with 33 different finishes. So we have a, uh, strong fast ship program that helps, but then, uh, the ability to Do selection has been very important for us. 

Dennis Oz: That’s really interesting because, uh, yeah, the fast lead times are really driving what really driving the sales, especially cabinet world today.

Because we see so many interruptions after COVID that the logistical lines are cut. And also there are so many supply chain issues here and there. But, uh, when you just have this opportunity and this convenience for all other like dealers and also like the end users, including. All other people that you have in your ideal as a customer avatar, if you offer this convenience to these people, I am sure that these people are really happy with your service here, since it’s a fast service is a really good, like a big convenience when you are talking to the end user homeowners and either could be like a residential or commercial project.

So that’s really important. So let’s talk about a little more about like the, uh, Uh, like your, your innovations. Let’s, um, let’s talk about this one, what you think about the innovations in this industry, or let’s say, um, you’re the, the, the, the innovation that really, really excited for you feel really excited about what are those things over the years that you can give some examples.

I’m sure that you have decades of experience here. It couldn’t be some something recent or could be, uh, what are those like new things that really excited new innovations that really excites you? 

Joseph Edwards: Well, from a manufacturing standpoint, and this dovetails with the fast ship programming is the ability to go online or a dealer builder to order online the cabinets to have that go directly into our computer system, our ERP system, and that’s been out directly into our equipment to do machine cutting.

Um, that is the. Uh, most fascinating feature, uh, through the years, uh, we no longer have to take emails, faxes, uh, if anybody knows what a fax is anymore, uh, we no longer have to take orders in. And then have to rekey them and then turn them around and, uh, take out sheets and a paper and have our machines cut, uh, after somebody programs.

All of ours works that whenever you place an order online, it fluidly goes into our system and then goes right out to our machining for scheduling. And we just, uh, set a time and date and it starts cutting. Um, and that acceleration of being able to get it out the door is absolutely wonderful. The other aspect is the order that the dealer keys in is the order.

There’s nobody here that sits and transposes numbers and a 24 becomes a 42. Uh, so we take out human error in the process. So the most exciting aspect is how fast we can move material through our plant. 

Dennis Oz: That’s interesting to hear, uh, because, yeah, that’s, that’s a very important part of it, I’m sure, when you talk about this.

Um, that also brings us to, um, a question about, uh, the trends. I’m sure you have seen so many different trends in, uh, so many, many years in the industry. But let’s talk about the current trends in the cabinet industry. What do you think, which one is the most interesting one for you? 

Joseph Edwards: Well, frameless has always been intriguing and you have both sides.

It’s difference between Ford and Chevrolet. You’re going to have biases in both directions. I’ve been fortunate to work with both, but, um, the frameless, uh, we have one 16th reveal, very close tolerances on our cabinet. So, uh, the sleek, the contemporary, the modern, uh, is exciting. I mean, we’ve kind of gone full circle from a 30 year period.

We were doing cymatic, Pogenpol, Almelomo, high end looks, very sophisticated looks in the 80s, but now that had phased out. We went into more wood grains and so forth through the years, but now that is all coming back and the looks are here. But at substantially less cost, uh, because of the new equipment that’s out there for, uh, fast production and for the software that can make that fast production.

But the looks today that we’re running into. We’ll differentiate by a geographical area, your areas like Miami, Atlanta, New York, Manhattan, uh, still like that sophisticated, sleek look, uh, minimalistic lines, uh, strong verticals, strong horizontals, uh, whereas if you move into the center of the country, we see a lot of, uh, Wood grains in a mixture.

It may be a high gloss white up on top and a strong dark wood grain on the bottom. So it gets to be more of a mix, uh, which makes it enjoyable because now you’re not just dominated like you were with white shaker for 15 years now, a lot of variety. Yes. Yeah, 

Dennis Oz: right. You’re right. Exactly. So, uh, you’re right.

That’s a really, I would say it’s an enjoyable part of it. It’s, it’s, uh, you know, even funny to like really address this, uh, you know, differentiation between different, um, states and even, uh, you talk about geography. It’s, uh, it’s important to understand people trends. It’s really interesting. Yeah. And also.

You also mentioned that a lot of big conveniences, especially with the technological advancements, it’s giving you these tools are giving you a big convenience when you are running your operations, but still, we still have some challenges in the industry. So, uh, Well, you still wanna talk about that supply chain.

Joseph Edwards: You still have supply chain issues. And yeah, to be honest, that’s one reason we implemented the equipment that we have in our plant. And to spin off of that a little bit, um, the ownership of this company did not want to have to tell. A customer on an RTA cabinet, you’re going to have to wait. It’s on the water, which is an old RTA slogan because somebody didn’t have enough inventory.

We have very strong inventory, but if I do not have a cabinet, for whatever reason, I can make it. I have full equipment and backup materials. I can make any cabinet that we would like to. Um, and that’s the reason we brought out a second line of cabinets. Once we realized we had that operational capability, we started making a semi custom cabinet and that’s called our signature series.

And we build that entirely here in our plant. 

Dennis Oz: Very interesting to hear. Thank you so much for sharing this one. It’s just like a really golden nugget for anyone who’s listening and also watching today. Um, yeah, we are talking about the challenges, like also like the advancements and technological side of things.

Just would like to take the conversation to, uh, to the, uh, to the sustainability and innovation. So, uh, do you have a, let’s say, what role do innovation and technology play in Eurocraft strategy for staying competitive in the market? very much. 

Joseph Edwards: Well, and I don’t want this to really sound offensive, but, uh, it allows us to maintain cost control.

Um, and it’s by, uh, having reduced number of people involved with the company, by going more technological, by, uh, introducing the software we have. We have less people involved with customer service. Uh, we have less people in order entry because the system allows it to go directly into our computer. So, uh, to keep our costs down, uh, unfortunately we have to have less people.

And we effectively do that with our Uh, technology we have today, and it’s not meant to be offensive whatsoever, but find extremely good labor, uh, is difficult and it’s becoming more costly. And so the streamlining of the process has become very important to maintaining cost control. 

Dennis Oz: Right. Uh, having less people doesn’t, I don’t think that is offensive because let’s say, It’s also, uh, showing your own clients the professionalism that you put in there, because, well, um, getting the human element out of our workflows will decrease the number of errors that we are making.

That’s for sure. That is absolutely right. Absolutely. Yeah, and, uh, as much as we have less people, well, we can pick people’s brains, not like the actual, uh, Like the force that they will apply to finish a job. Here, uh, Word has a new trend, like, you know, with all this kind of artificial intelligence and, uh, the tools that is, uh, bringing us, when, also, some tools that is, uh, being used with artificial intelligence.

They just turn to a super, super weapons for like, uh, for companies to use because, you know, when we have, for example, a, like an usual workflow, when we add AI into this one, you can save, you can make things faster, which give you more competitive edge compared to your, compared to your, you know, the other people, other companies that you are going.

Uh, you know, after the same prospect, let’s say. So when you’re with your competitors, in other words. So, uh, it’s great to hear that you are applying these like these kind of, uh, automational Uh, like tactics and strategies to your company and, uh, folks, you’re hearing us, you’re just tuning us today and, uh, you see how innovation is shaping the industry because one thing that you cannot avoid is that this change.

Um, things, things are always changing, right, Greg? It’s, uh, yeah, things are always being changed. What do you think about this? Is that the, is that the last part of this change that we’re gonna have, or is that just one of, one of the recent ones? 

Joseph Edwards: The, the country as a whole, And especially our industry got comfortable during the COVID period when we had, unfortunately, all the shutdowns, people were locked into their homes, so to speak, and doing their work from home.

And most of the time they were doing it from the heart of the kitchen or part of the home, the kitchen itself, and they would sit and look at their kitchens and go. I need to do something about this. This kitchen looks too old and they started getting creative and they would go online and, uh, people have gotten accustomed to placing orders B2C online and then in turn those organizations B2B to placing it with manufacturing, but people have a comfort level of working with Amazon or TMU or Alabama.

There’s a comfort level in now ordering online, so you’re saving fuel, you’re not running all over the place to showrooms, and I’m not downplaying the importance of showrooms whatsoever, but our society is streamlining processes in a lot of areas. 

Dennis Oz: Right, exactly, and it’s, uh, it’s just the, this change is just a part of it, and it’s never gonna stop, and, well, I’m so excited to see the next change in the industry, since we see a big change with AI.

And I see more and more companies are utilizing AI for their design processes, not alone workflows, just by design processes. AI is right now creating beautiful kitchen. Um, and bathroom designs, not there yet is like a professional rendering programs, not there yet, but all these things happen less in less than a year.

So let’s give it a 10 year and now we cannot really imagine what’s going to happen. And, um, every time that is, uh, you know, there is a big, uh, controversy that is going on with the AI and less human power that we’re going to work that we are going to need in the future. AI is not going to like really.

Take your job, but it’s hard 

Joseph Edwards: to say I don’t think the kitchen’s gonna take over my lifestyle Uh, yeah So I think the kitchen is the safest place to be in right now, right This is 

Dennis Oz: correct. But I always that’s just like a line what you said is I always say that the AI is not going to take over, take your job away and you will be unemployable like, you know, unemployed.

Someone using AI may replace you. So you’ve got to, you’ve got to be a part of this change. And you know, understand like the automations and everything and like creating, uh, these, uh, Um, human free processes just to make it fast and error free. So that’s the big part of it. I’m sure that you also, uh, uh, agree with that.

Yeah. And, uh, you know, it’s just like, um, it’s just being a part of this change is important. That’s what we’re trying to say, folks, all our audiences here. Uh, part of being a part of this change is really important. And, uh, you are never late. But you know the earliest time that they can do it Start learning about it is today so you can’t you don’t really want to postpone anything if you would like to make a Perform your own due diligence and learn more about it Our channel is also a big resource for this one you can tune in and different episodes or just this episode will also give you a lot of information about the innovations and like these kind of sustainability elements that we have to learn about on our industry when you’re running our businesses.

So thank you so much for this one, Greg. Let’s take the conversation to the, um, marketing side of things, especially on online or offline marketing, digital or non digital marketing. What type of marketing strategies you find really effective, uh, in promoting, uh, Eurocraft products and services. 

Joseph Edwards: Well, one of our most effective is when we construct our own email blast that we send out.

Uh, we have roughly 10, 000, uh, designers, uh, or, uh, showroom organizations that we send a blast email out to, uh, weekly, and it’ll show and feature, uh, Feature the different products we are offering, or some of the new colors we’re offering. Um, we effectively, because we’re B2B, uh, work with LinkedIn, uh, frequently, and it’s a good way to meet people.

Uh, and then you’ve got your traditional social, uh, platforms, whether it’s Instagram or Facebook, but that’s, that’s where we get the most activity. Mailouts, uh, in a B2B do not work very effectively, we’ve found, um, and people do appreciate getting, uh, an email, um, that they can either turn off or review.

Fortunately, we’re running about 55 percent uh, opening rate, so. This is great! Out of 3, 000, we have 5, 500 a week that are opened up and, uh, are reviewed. So we’re very fortunate. 

Dennis Oz: It’s really powerful and effective when you utilize email marketing. Uh, and you’re, you’re doing this great here, uh, that, you know, our audiences may not have that much of a big list, but folks, you don’t bring this list together overnight.

This is your, this is something that you can start building again, something that you cannot really. Uh, postpone, you have to start building your own list, especially if you’re B2B, if you’re B2C, it’s different. It’s different. You may not utilize LinkedIn is the way Greg and Eurocraft cabinet just utilize.

But, uh, of course there will be more opportunities in LinkedIn. If you’re looking to B2C, uh, business to customer or client, but look, we are right now in this case, we are talking to, talking about business to business. LinkedIn is a great place for this. Greg, I always have questions about from our followers.

Should we do like, um, you know, TikTok? It depends on your, on your strategy. B2B, do you think that TikTok is going to work? What do you think about this? Like this kind of platform. What do you think? I want to ask you instead of answering the question. 

Joseph Edwards: I, I kind of, my bias is, uh, this isn’t from talking to anybody else.

This is just my bias. I think TikTok belongs to the B to C base. Uh, I don’t find too many, um, in the B2B realm that really get on TikTok. Uh, I hate to say most of them don’t have the time to get on TikTok. Uh, but, uh, I think it may be effective for B2C. For sure. As well as Facebook and Instagram for B2C.

But on the B2B level, uh, I still think the ones we just discussed are the better way to go. Right. Imagine folks, 

Dennis Oz: imagine a big email list that you have in your hand. And then imagine that you have like a great opening rate from these people. There will be all these people who just, you know, unsubscribe from your list, that’s okay.

But the good thing is that you, if you’re just sending quality information to the people that they can really use, they will love what you will share and these open rates is going to increase. And this is, this is 2024. And when you have this kind of like really good metrics. Trust me, email, um, email servers also will notice this difference and you will not going to be delivered to junk folders or like alternative folders.

You will directly go to the inboxes when you offer this kind of valuable information to your followers. So it’s important to have offer quality information to the correct people. So for example, in this case, Greg, I’m sure That you, your opening rates just maybe plummet if you just change the audience here because you’re sending it to the showroom owners, right?

You’re sending it to the correct audience. Audios here that’s also 

Joseph Edwards: the biggest part of it is You do not just a word of advice. You do not want to send to info at such and such Nor do you want to go sales at such and such you want to try to target principles Or senior designers or or the designers themselves?

um in in your email blast, but You you don’t want to go into just an open forum You Because it will get discarded like a piece of junk mail. Yeah, I still, 

Dennis Oz: by the way, Greg, just wanted to share with you. Um, I still find direct mail so powerful because because of the people who just lost it’s like, I would say they lost their interest to direct mail.

I found direct mail really powerful still, um, I was talking to a, it’s really interesting story here, uh, before asking your opinion, I just wanted to share the story with you and with the audience. Uh, the, a mail, direct mail and company made an, uh, like a research in a specific given area in a zip code.

They sent couple of different postcards. Promoting the services of a real estate agent in the area that real estate agent was 100 percent fake By the way, it’s been created And name and last name was not really legit. It was a fake real estate agent They promoted this fake real estate agent to this to these audience to this I’m, sorry the homeowners and also like the people who are living in this area door to door And after a couple of like campaigns, they literally knocked the doors and showed them a picture, including like three, three different real estate agents.

Two of them was a real, real real estate agents that are like actual real estate agents working in the area. And the one was the last one was the fake one. And they asked this homeowners, which one is more familiar? Which one do you think that is more active in the area? Yes. Just like you’re, you’re laughing because the fake one was the first one.

Uh, he came out the first one from that, um, actual, uh, research. And it was really interesting to have this kind of information on side when we look at different marketing styles that you have. When you say sending postcards doesn’t never sound like a digital marketing tool, but sometimes you add like QR codes, just like this.

Then you just turn it to a digital. What do you think about this? What do you think about utilizing offline or hybrid marketing channels to a Eurocraft cabinetry and mark? 

Joseph Edwards: Well, since we’re again, B2B and then doing retail, uh, we, we, we don’t, uh, promote, Channel except directly to our, our business partners, but, uh, it’s still, uh, the postcard with the pretty picture or, uh, of a kitchen, uh, or a bath, uh, is still effective, uh, as a mail out for B to C.

So, I don’t want to dissuade anybody from not using mail outs. Right. People do want to get that blast of a beautiful kitchen or beautiful bath and stimulate the brain cells that, hey, I may want to get this. Um, but as far as a B2B, um, to be honest, uh, I think a lot of, Owners, especially smaller shop owners, smaller builders, uh, those, they don’t get the luxury to read their mail during the day.

They look at things in the evening and it’s easier to go to your emails and open up an email that looks attractive, uh, than it is to go and look in your mail stack sometimes. And that’s my bias. I’m sorry. 

Dennis Oz: Yes That’s a that’s a there’s a profound insight. Thanks so much for sharing the expertise here. Uh, Greg, that was great Well, uh, we’ll be wrapping up folks, but um, I have a couple of more questions um to ask um Let’s uh, let’s ask we have Greg.

We have a lot of like people are Even thinking about a career in our industry, starting a career in our industry, that could be even a new designer that you really would like to learn how to design a kitchen and, you know, kind of be on the project side of things, or some entrepreneurs that would like to start their own businesses and, uh, you know, help, you know, homeowners or like residential or commercial companies to, uh, you know, serve that, that actual audiences, what advice would you give to someone who’s looking to start a career in the, in our industry?

Joseph Edwards: Oh, if you’re creating, there’s, there’s a number of programs, whether in. Community colleges or even the larger colleges colleges today. There’s a number of programs that can give you an education, uh, in construction and in kitchens. Um, one of the best though, uh, is to join NKBA. National Kitchen and Bath Association, because now they’ve come out with almost handbooks and progressiveness to learn different aspects, not only kitchen layout, but lighting, plumbing, electrical.

So it’s a pretty comprehensive and you can take Uh, and do different levels of certification, um, based on that and also in the bath area. Strongly, uh, suggest joining local chapters of NKBA, even if you’re just starting out. Uh, I don’t know what it is for membership, but it’s negligible for an annual membership.

Um, that’s one of the best ways. The secondary kind of a training ground is to join one of the larger, if you don’t have an association to work with as far as a showroom entity, um, to one of your big box stores, Home Depot, Lowe’s and their cabinet department. They’re always looking for people and they do offer training programs from within.

So, uh, That’s another what I call the, uh, training ground, so to speak, for a lot of designers. They’ve come out of the big box area. So those are my recommendations. 

Dennis Oz: Thank you so much. And it’s coming from a pioneer personality folks. It’s not from a guy who just started yesterday. So you cannot get this quality.

You cannot find this quality information anywhere else. And Greg, thank you so much for sharing all this information. With us today, uh, well, uh, just for the one last question, if someone has a follow up question or Like they would like to know more about your craft cavity What is the best way to get in touch ongoing like going forward after the show if someone just you know Listens and tunes it.

Is that a website or you know, there will be another 10 000 followers here I don’t want you to share your personal cell phone number here, but I won’t 

Joseph Edwards: give my cell phone number, but it’s got a quite a few entries in it. But no, uh, our company website, and I appreciate the opportunity to share it, uh, will be Euro craft cabinetry, f l.

com. Emphasis on the FL your Euro craft. Cabinetry fl.com. By the same token, my email address for here, uh, feel free to contact me directly, Greg GREG dot e at euro craft cabinetry fl.com. 

Dennis Oz: Thank you so much, Greg. Thank you so much for all the information and insight that you shared today. Folks, that was another episode of the Remodel of Success podcast.

Thank you so much for joining us today. We’re going to see you in the next episode. Goodbye. 

Joseph Edwards: Thanks, Dennis. 

Dennis Oz: Thank you.