One Rhode Island cabinetry manufacturer and a local interior design firm have
teamed up to create a new breed of showroom for homeowners, contractors and
dealers, one that maximizes showroom space and has more versatile cabinetry
pieces that can save time and money.
“We tried to streamline it and make it all very flexible,” said Joe Cannon, president and CEO of East Greenwich-based CAS America, which manufactures cabinetry for dental/medical, commercial (command centers and offices) and high-end residential uses. “The nice thing is if they need to see more, the factory is five minutes away.”
The showroom, in an office building on South County Trail, is 750 square feet with a conference room for clients and an office for Design Resources Co. LLC, an interior design firm and licensed contracting company. Design Resources is also the dealer for CAS’ residential lines for bath and kitchen products.
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The ultimate goal, Cannon said, is for the showroom to allow both companies to expand, and specifically for CAS America to expand into more custom cabinetry solutions.
“We’re a manufacturer, we’re not in the retail business,” Cannon said of the partnership. “Design Resources is in the design and retail business. We can bring customers to them and they can bring customers to us.”
The showroom’s front room features residential cabinetry, which occupies the majority of the business there, according to Ron D’Amico, kitchen and cabinetry sales director for Design Resources, which is owned by his wife, Sandra. The two other rooms showcase CAS’ CABTECH line, cabinetry for medical professions and a conference room.
“We happened to call CAS; we were looking for a good cabinet-maker to represent, and they wanted to diversify,” D’Amico said of the partnership. “Joe (Cannon) hasn’t seen any big change in the business; you build big kitchens, have to update them every year or so, and it’s a big overhead business. That kept CAS from getting into the residential side.”
The rising cost of wood, materials and labor is another good reason to try a new way of showcasing cabinets, D’Amico said.
“If we had this high overhead showroom, that cost would be deferred to the customer,” he said. “That degrades the quality of the product. The real benefits we offer are that we’re not a walk-in center; all (customers) need to see is one cabinet. We don’t need much stuff to show the intricacies of a cabinet.”
In the showroom, the residential display cabinets have wheels on them to make rotating the showroom pieces easier, eliminating the need to frequently update the cabinet displays. The showroom also gives dentists and doctors the opportunity to see, touch and test out work stations, instead of just ordering them through a catalog.
“There’s more product put into a more confined space,” Cannon said. “If you’re looking at this showroom, and you put all of this stuff into the same area, you’d need 1,500 square feet of space.”
CAS and Design Resources started working on the showroom in January and moved into the building and had an open house in June.
“Now that they have this facility, they can partner with other designers in the state,” Cannon said of Design Resources. Having the design firm in the building means that the showroom is always staffed.
The two companies are leasing the space, in a stand-alone office building,
for two years from a couple with an insurance business in the building, along
with other tenants. According to Cannon, if the experimental showroom is a success,
both companies would like to have locations in their Boston, Connecticut and
New York markets.
