Chris Williamson owns Custom Cabinets by Williamson Millworks, in Savannah, Georgia. In the early 1970's, Savannah's Historic District began to bloom as did Custom Cabinets. Established by the work ethic and committed approach to servicing his customer's needs, a single dedicated craftsman, Roy Williamson, laid the groundwork for what is today Williamson Millworks.

Today Williamson Millworks is owned and operated by Chris Williamson, and has become a premier casework supplier specializing in both commercial and residential applications. It offers both pre-manufactured factory cabinetry lines - including Aristokraft, Decora, Fabuwood, Shilo, and other leading suppliers - or can design and build custom solutions in house.

Custom Cabinets by Williamson Millworks also produces commercial casework, built to  Architectural Woodwork Institute standards with the highest quality craftsmanship. "We are skilled at working under tight budgets, deadlines, and schedules, while meeting all architectural and designer specifications," Williamson says.

Founder Clint Williamson sold the business 1996. "I was fortunate enough to buy the company back bringing back into the family name in 2005," says Chris Williamson. 

It's been a learning process, Chris Williamson says. "Once all we had was a table saw, and a lot of boring machines," and the former owners felt they had taken the company as far as it could really go.  

"If you're not constantly looking for new ways to do business, you are just one step away from going out of business."

A challenge was how to grow capacity without have to relocate.

"So I started looking at how we can grow our business, and finding a faster, more efficient way to work. We finally decided to purchase the best." Williamson added a CR Onsrud nested -based CNC machine. 

"It turned out to be a great thing; because we were going down to one machine that's big enough to basically handle everything."

A more capable nest-based CNC meant less travel for components between a saw, point to point CNC, and other processing stations.

"Coming out of the recession, and since things were going to take off, it was important to stay ahead of the curve," Williamson says. "We basically completely redid up shop, and the way we do business. We got rid of the work cell after visiting a competitor in North Carolina."