Just because the economy is strong does not mean it is all right to get complacent. What happens when it slows down, or worse, what happens if the economy goes into recession? Yves DesMarais, president of Hollywood Woodwork Inc., has a plan for that very scenario. His company has grown its service to include high-end custom woodwork for the marine industry and is already realizing a steady stream of repeat business as an outsource company for two of the largest boat manufacturers in Florida.
Manufacturing architectural woodwork for the boating industry has provided Hollywood Woodworks, Inc. of Miami, Florida, with the means to ride the waves of the current strong economy. “We had always nibbled at business in the boating industry because it is high-end custom woodwork, which is what we do best,” said Yves DesMarais, president.
“A lot of my friends in the Midwest had begun to branch out into the store fixture business as a backup to their architectural woodwork operations. We just thought, ‘Hey, we are surrounded by water and boaters, why don’t we branch out into that industry.’ It made sense because even in depression, the rich are still rich and they are still buying boats. So, we decided to diversify our production just in case we needed a safety net.”
The decision didn’t require much of a change in philosophy for the company. “High-end custom millwork is custom millwork,” DesMarais said. “The only difference in millwork for the boating industry and millwork for residential or commercial industries is that everything is smaller and full of curves. There are no straight lines in this industry. And the materials we manufacture with have to be lighter and water-resistant. That is why we use a polyester finish on the boat millwork for instance.”
Hollywood has a team on the plant floor that is called its ‘boat team.’ “The boating segment is twenty-five percent of our total business now,” DesMarais said. “We do the millwork for two of the major boat manufacturers in the state and it is good repeat business.”
This new concentration did require the latest in technology, however. “Investing in technology for your workforce does not make your company better than your competitor anymore,” DesMarais said. “Today, you have to invest in the latest in technologies just to stay in business. If you don’t do it, you are doomed and you will not be able to compete.”
Some of the technology used at Hollywood woodwork includes a CNC router by Anderson America. “The biggest innovation in our industry is CNC equipment like the CNC router,” DesMarais said. “Whatever you draw on AutoCAD can be reproduced by these machines. It allows you to do curves and everything is consistent or identical.
“The CNC router has helped us increase our quality quite a bit because it takes the human factor out of the equation. It increases production without increasing the amount of people that you need. You don’t necessarily have to get rid of people with this machinery, but it allows you to shift their job functions to other areas of the operation. This helps you to grow.”
CNC technology alters the way a company thinks about manufacturing, according to DesMarais. “It has changed our attitude in manufacturing. Instead of being the type of craftsman who will spend four weeks putting one unit together, you become more production oriented when you invest in CNC technology. You can produce a lot of parts on the CNC equipment and after that it just becomes an assembly process. You take away a lot of the thinking on the shop floor and bring it into the engineering process.”
The company recently has invested in an Accord edgebander from Holz-Her, which has become a valuable part of the company’s production as well. “Edgebanders to a cabinet shop are like shoes to a racer — you cannot operate without one. It’s a great piece of equipment,” said DesMarais.
The next technology to be implemented in the Hollywood production process will be an automated spray finishing system. DesMarais said that he has been doing some research on spray finishing systems and hopes to walk away from the International Woodworking Fair in Atlanta, Georgia, having committed to a flat-line spraying system. “There is so much time spent in the finishing process with the sanding and the spraying that we have to mechanize that department,” he said. “We need the mechanical equipment so that the ninety-seventh panel sprayed will be exactly the same as the second panel — and you can’t always count on that when spraying manually.”
This year Hollywood Woodwork will gross about $20 million in sales. Business has been brisk, according to DesMarais. “Through the years we have positioned ourselves to be the best in the fine architectural woodwork industry here. With the population growing here the way it has been, business has been good for us. With more people, there is a need for more banks, more hospitals, theaters, hotels and restaurants.”
But the picture wasn’t always so rosy. “When my father came here he started a little two-man shop with a table saw from Sears,” DesMarais said. “He had absolutely no woodworking in his background. The business moved along slowly and when Dad retired some of my brothers and I took over the business. At that point we were making approximately a half million dollars in sales per year.”
Initially, there were some growing pains. The company slowly grew by bidding on larger and larger projects. “It was a day-to-day learning process,” said DesMarais. “Today there are four of us that are partners, and some of the other family members have various shops located all over South Florida. We share a lot of work together.”
The company currently has about 130 employees, and operates two plants. The South Florida plant is 36,000 square feet. The company produces its high-end architectural woodwork at that plant. The second plant in Central Florida is 18,000 square feet. That plant, called Florida Casework, manufactures plastic laminate casework. It services primarily schools and hospitals. “We purchased Florida Casework ten years ago to give ourselves a presence in Central Florida,” he said.
When DesMarais took over his father’s business, he felt he knew enough about running a business to get by, thanks in large part to his educational background. What DesMarais did not know was how to run a woodworking business. He credits his involvement with the Architectural Woodwork Institute (AWI) with making him the knowledgeable woodworker he is today.
“One of the biggest advantages I had, along with some of my people, happened when I joined the AWI,” DesMarais said. “I think the AWI is the best woodworking university in the country. I became a better businessman by associating with other companies like us — and today there are around eight hundred architectural woodworking firms in the country — and volunteering to work on committees and to participate in workshops and seminars. The AWI offers estimating seminars, management seminars, project management seminars, engineering seminars, drafting seminars, etc. Today, I would call myself an experienced woodworker, and the majority of what I know I can credit to the Architectural Woodwork Institute. The association has been a great vehicle for me and my employees.”
Along with his association with the AWI, DesMarais credits his unique outlook on business to much of the success of Hollywood Woodwork.
“If I could point at one reason for our success, it is because we made the distinction that we are not in the manufacturing business — we are in the service business,” he said.
“In this industry, whatever the customer wants, he gets — that is the definition of custom. Therefore, we have to be solution minded because we might be creating an interior for a $10 million business or for a hotel or yacht. You are not only creating an interior, you are creating solutions for design problems. If you go with this attitude, you are not pushing your product — you are pushing your talents. It makes a big difference.”
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