"We do banks, beauty salons, dental offices and conference rooms," he says. "A lot of the commercial companies are doing mostly laminate work. We leave the school jobs to the bigger companies, because those jobs tend to be all laminate and 150 boxes of the same thing. We are geared towards smaller runs and custom work."

Beyer says the work they do is truly custom. "My clients often walk in with photos and a wish list of colors, woods, door styles, countertops, appliances and features they want. We make it a reality."

When Beyer sat down recently to talk about his West Salem, WI, custom cabinetry business, he did so in the company break room. He used to conduct interviews in the conference room, but business has been so busy that he was forced to convert that space into another sales office.

Beyer founded his company in 1987, and it has enjoyed a decade-plus of rapid growth. He opened the shop after amassing extensive woodworking experience working for a millwork company, a large kitchen cabinet manufacturer and running a wood dimension plant that made parts for kitchen cabinets. When the dimension plant was closed, instead of relocating with the company, Beyer decided to start a cabinet business from his garage.

"Usually the out-of-area work happens because someone we worked with here is doing a project there," he says.

Changing Tastes

Five to 10 years ago, the majority of the company's work was remodeling. But today, that has swung to almost all new construction. Beyer describes his market as very conservative, although it is becoming much more high-end.

This open kitchen is in select maple, with trim stained in a contrasting color that matches the seats on the stools. All exposed ends are true frame-and-panel, not veneers or applied ends.

Beyer's extensive showroom highlights the many looks available to clients. He turned a hutch into a sales tool, with rows of hanging doors showcasing different species, styles, colors and finishes.

"In the last five or six years, we have moved toward using different woods to create the desired color and effect, rather than using one or two woods and staining them differently," he says.

The company works with a dozen or so species on a regular basis, but as a custom shop, it will work with any species the client requests. "We fine-tune what the client wants beyond just naming a wood," Beyer says. "With a wood like rustic alder, some want 'ultra rustic,' where they really want a lot of knotholes, while others just want a few character marks. Some people want a consistent color and others request color variation."

Beyer says people also are requesting more accessories and options across the board. "I think the design and decorating magazines have a lot to do with it. When I started this business, I contended that people were going to get tired of everything being plastic. People are often stuck in an office surrounded by computers and screens, and I thought they would want to come home to a warm-feeling environment. I believed woodwork would remain popular.

"What has surprised me is that besides wanting the warmth of wood, people want to be individuals," he continues. "They want a nice kitchen, but they want it different from what their neighbor has. When you spend $200,000 to a half million dollars on a home, you get a little pickier about what goes in it."

Beyer Cabinets is doing work in many different varieties of wood species nowadays. One example is this kitchen in rustic alder.

"So, companies from bigger cities like the Twin Cities, Chicago and Milwaukee have been moving here, because they see it as a pleasant place to live with a great work force," he says. "The I 90-94 corridor brings a lot of people to the area."

Fine-Tuned Manufacturing

Beyer Cabinets is housed in two adjacent buildings, including 20,000 square feet of design area, showroom, sales offices and manufacturing space. As the company expanded and added space over the years, Beyer reconfigured the work space and flow accordingly.

"As we expanded, we would put a machine where we thought it fit best and pretty soon it didn't fit there any more," he says. "About two years ago, we installed a new dust collection system, a 75-hp Carter Day model that we bought used and refitted to our needs. At that time we completely redid our manufacturing setup. It has proven to be a very good change.

With the new layout, in Beyer's first building, all the woodworking is done in one room and all sheet goods are processed in another room. Finished goods from both rooms are moved to the second building for finishing and final assembly.

New Systems Increase Efficiency

Beyer says the type of cabinets the company makes has not changed much over the years. But the way they are produced has.

"We have embraced computer-aided design and CNC machinery to make a lot of our parts," he says. "But despite the machinery additions, we have never cut employees. We might move people around, but we haven't cut employees because of new machines."

Beyer often supplies built-in casework throughout the home, not just the kitchen. One example is this sleek arched mantle, flanked by a custom bookcase and an entertainment unit.

"The router is one of our key pieces of equipment," he adds. "We have had it for three years. We replaced a beam saw and CNC machining center because we wanted to go to nested-based operation. The router cuts the parts and does any dadoeing or drilling we need, and the parts are ready for assembly."

The router also saves shop space and time and cuts down on material handling, Beyer says, "and we have seen materials savings with the nested approach.

The company also has a Bridgewood Model 757 moulder, used to make crown mouldings, face frames and drawer parts; a Butfering twin-head widebelt sander and a Brandt edgebander. All doors, drawer fronts and face frames go through the sander. All shelves and laminated products are edged on the edgebander.

Other machinery includes a Powermatic planer, Northfield shaper, a straight-line ripsaw by IMC USA and two OMGA cutoff miter saws. A Kreg pocket drilling machine is used on all face frames.

Also as part of the new shop layout, Beyer grouped several machines together in the area where door parts are machined to save steps. There are five shapers, a Ritter edge sander and the widebelt sander. Another work cell is set up for dovetailed drawers. All drawers for residential cabinetry are dovetailed.

The sheet good production area of the building houses the CNC router, the edgebander and an SCMI construction drill machine for edge drilling parts that are not drilled on the Komo.

The second building houses a maintenance area and finishing room with two spray booths, equipped with Kremlin air-assisted airless finish sprayers. The company does a lot of painted and glazed finishes, more so than in the past, Beyer says.

"We work with a company called Ceramic Industrial Coatings, which gives us durable topcoats and strong paint products. All are catalyzed. We often combine colors and paint glazes in multiple-step finishes. Parts might be painted, then glazed, sanded through and restained, and then have a topcoat over that.

"Today, with finishes, it's basically any process you can think of," he adds. "We are working on a kitchen now that features four different colors."

After parts are dried, they move to the adjoining cabinet assembly area for final assembly. Franklin is the company's glue supplier. "We use their products for most of our assembly," Beyer says. "We most often use Franklin's Titebond, but we also use its new HiPURformer bonding system for applications where we want a tighter joint than we can get with standard hot-melt. It applies as quickly as a hot-melt."

The company has upgraded a lot of equipment over the years to speed up production and increase accuracy. "It is very difficult to find trained employees here, but we have a very good work force base in this area with a great work ethic," Beyer says. "There are a lot of good people here, and we often train them from scratch. It is part of the reason this area is attracting new businesses."

While Beyer believes in helping people realize their dream kitchens and interiors, he also builds his business on a philosophy of service.

"It's been upsetting to me over the years that when you have a problem with a product, first, you can't talk to a real person on the phone and second, if you do get through to a real person, they don't want to help you. Our warranty is basically if there is something wrong, call us. We will come to the site and fix it. We don't ask people to bring a part in for us to fix. We replace broken parts, no labor charged. It's our philosophy, and it has been instrumental in helping us grow.

"We put out a good product and stand behind it," Beyer adds. "Things do go wrong occasionally, but we fix mistakes."