LACROSSE, WI - Kitchen remodeling businesses are poised for growth, says Kitchen Solvers, a national franchising company that specializes in kitchen cabinet and countertop refacing and remodeling.

Citing a Harvard study that pegs kitchen and bathroom remodeling at $75 billion a year, Kitchen Solvers president and CEO Gerry Henley says home remodeling spending will grow 5.9 percent in 2012 and 3.5 percent a year through 2015.

The Harvard Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity study says that retiring Baby Boomers are downsizing, selling homes they haven't upgraded in decades. As younger buyers enter the market, they are eager to remodel. That huge Baby Boom generation is just beginning to retire and unload houses in massive numbers, many of thm with remodeling deferred for years, says Henley.

 "There is a huge generational bulge of people who have owned their homes for decades," Henley said. "Some of them will remodel their homes to continue living in them long into retirement, but many more will sell to younger buyers eager to have a kitchen that suits their needs." Kitchen cabinets are the largest segment of wood component manufacturing, according to a study by WCMA, an industry trade group. 

Kitchen Solvers says its 70 franchises have remodeled more than 45,000 kitchens since the company was founded in 1982. It competes with Kitchen Tune-up, a franchise based in Fargo, ND.

Founded by Gerald and Betty Baldner as a home-based business in 1982, Kitchen Solvers expanded its service area to all of Western Wisconsin, then began franchising in 1984. In 1999 it opened it first Canadian franchise in Ottawa, Ontario.