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While business conditions remain favorable, today’s cabinet shops face several key challenges, including shortages of competent labor and the rising costs of health care. Additionally, fast-changing technology, increases in material and gas costs and fierce competition from cheaply priced imports are forcing smaller cabinet shops to re-examine their business practices in order to stay competitive.

These were the findings of a recent spot survey of cabinet shops, which polled a sampling of cabinet shops across the nation about their business practices, current market conditions and future plans.

The vast majority of those polled expressed optimism about the market, with some 86% of those surveyed rating current business conditions as “excellent” or “good,” compared with only 13% who rated conditions as “fair” and a mere 1% who saw them as “poor” (see Graph 1).

In light of these positive business conditions, it’s no surprise that shops were looking at increasing everything from staff size to number of door styles carried in order to meet growing demand for their products and services.

Labor Shortages
But while growth seemed to be on the horizon for many shops, staffing issues were cited as a key issue faced by survey respondents. Of the more than 130 cabinet shops surveyed, 35% said they’d increased the number of employees in their shop in the past 12 months (see Graph 2), with respondents saying their shops currently averaged 12.4 employees. However, many more survey respondents said they’d like to increase their staff…but couldn’t find the right people.

Indeed, the problem for most was less about whether or not to add staff, but rather how to find competent labor.

“Finding and keeping skilled and motivated cabinetmakers is a real challenge,” said Daryl Nigon, president of the Rochester, MN-based Nigon Woodworks, Inc. His firm’s solution? “We are working with the schools [to find trained people] and buying CNC equipment [to minimize staffing requirements].”

“Qualified workers are hard to find, and this is an ongoing problem,” agreed Richard Rix, owner of Distinctive Woodworking in Fresno, CA.

“The problem stems [in part] from no one teaching the trades anymore,” he believes. “In fact, a lot of schools have totally eliminated shop classes [and related trade programs]…you have to wonder, in 10 years, who’s going to build anything?”