The Kitchen Cabinet Refacing Market exposed

If you are a producer of 3D Laminate thermofoil doors, then you most likely sell to Kitchen Cabinet Refacers already. Kitchen Cabinet Refacers can be one man shops or larger shops with multiple installers.

In this article I'd like to discuss the colors in your sample chain, how much cabinet refacers charge, and what solutions DACKOR provides that would enable your company to obtain more cabinet reface business.

If you take a look at your sample chain, you probably can remember back to when you first added each color - you might even remember which customer initially requested it.

When I started in the thermofoil business in the mid 90s, most matches that foil companies did were to High Pressure Laminate companies like Wilsonart and Formica. A few more knowledgeable film companies created matches to Panolam and other TFM companies. At that time the quality of matches were very poor, and there was almost no cooperation between the paper companies and the PVC film companies to create perfect matches for the North American market. Today, however, the matches are ten times better.

If you look at your sample swatch of colors you offer to the public today, though, are all of your colors relevant to all of your clients? For example, why would a Closet Producer who purchases TFM board need to sift through a swatch book that is also mixed with colors that match only HPL? Vice versa, why would a Cabinet Refacer who purchases only HPL want to comb through a catalog mixed with designs that only match TFM? The truth is that most door buying customers find only a tight group of designs in your collection relevant to his business. So, the question is, how many outstanding matches do you really have to HPL? Probably less than your refacing colors would like.

Since cabinet refacers must rely upon HPL for matches, they will take your film swatch book and try to find colors that match the HPL suppliers such as Wilsonart, Formica and others. The matches are sometimes good, but sometimes they are absolutely horrible. Adding to this difficulty is that thermofoil companies such as ourselves are producing less colors that match HPL than ever. The cabinet refacer most often sells the job and hopes that the customer does not complain about the cabinet sides not matching the fronts. There are known cases of customers refusing to pay the refacer because of how poor the cabinet side match was. The point is that cabinet refacers would prefer a perfect match that they do not have to explain away.

Are cabinet refacers willing to pay extra for the perfect match? They say "no", but in reality the answer is yes. I will explain. First of all, the leader in North America for cabinet refacing is Sears. Sears offers a thermofoil refacing option with perfect matching doors and cabinet sides, because their door supplier offers a perfect match system - the thermofoil laminate with a phenolic backing. On average, the Sears price to reface is around $6K to over $15K per Kitchen. The customers find their financing and the backing of a national brand to be comforting in today's world of contractors who come and go. In addition, the homeowners often remodel before a holiday or special occasion, and they feel fear over having the entire Kitchen ripped out, especially due to concerns over damaged tile, wall paper, etc.

If you were a sales person working for Sears and you visited a homeowner, wouldn't you make a big deal about how local remodelers don't use the same material on the cabinet sides? Certainly this is a huge selling point for Sears.

With the average cost of doors being around $500, there is a healthy profit margin in cabinet refacing. Imagine purchasing your doors, drawers and all materials for less than $1,000 and being able to sell that job for $5,000 or even $10,000. The point I'm trying to make is that cabinet refacers would be willing to pay for the perfect match if they knew it would help them sell the jobs more easily.

For the cabinet refacing industry, DACKOR offers the perfect match peel and stick woodgrains and solids, as well as 4x8 laminate sheets. In addition, we offer film cut for the single job with no cutting fee! We can supply you a couple of trays for a single job and UPS it right out. The idea is that if a business is proven, then eventually you'd be purchasing larger rolls on the faster moving colors. We do this to offer the market the ability to show and promote to cabinet refacers without having to bring in inventory of all 12 colors we offer.

Some of your competitors already have a program with perfect match laminate sheets and certainly their cabinet refacing customer typically purchases from them for this reason. Your customer base probably doesn't ask you about this because your customer base is full of customers who don't even see the need. That a unique phenomenon among marketing products or services. Our feedback from our customers are limited to the types of customers we work with. What colors you choose to add to your line will determine what types of customers they attract. Some door producers who only offer the cheapest foils are surprised to find that their customers are the very ones saying their door prices are too high. Its a vicious cycle. So to attract refacers you must intentionally create a program for their needs. Word will get out that you have a program.

Currently the cost of our laminate sheets are $55 per sheet for a 10 pack or $75 each. We have the capability to sell these sheets to the refacers or through the door producer. Typically the door producer will tell their customer to buy from us until they are able to buy 10 sheet packs and resell the individual sheets for the jobs. The peel and stick comes in 4' wide X continuous lengths and cost the same.

Some cabinet refacers balk at this price for a laminate sheet, however many are unaware that the perfect match could help them separate their companies from the other refacers out there. Believe me, Sears would cut costs here too if it made sense, but they probably feel that it does not. Certainly if they explained to the customer that they offered a perfect match, the home owner would be more likely to go with them. And at at $4K plus profit per job, the laminate sheet cost is irrelevant. Please note also that our laminate sheets cost more because its the film cost + laminate back + lamination, so it essentially doubles the cost but offers the perfect match.

As for the peel and stick wood grains, we have some cabinet refacers who absolutely love this material. Properly used it can speed up installation and decrease the mess associated with trimming laminate in the Kitchen. The key is to clean the cabinets with 409 and some even sand down the boxes. For any holes or gaps they fill it in with wood putty. We are working with a half dozen refacers who have each told us that they used a hobby iron on the peel and stick to re-activate the glue and create a stronger initial bon to the substrate. This is a growing trend that cabinet refacers are discovering to properly apply the peel and stick. For apartment remodels, property managers can have their maintenance staff get trained by DACKOR and to remodel the entire property. A project with 300 units can purchase a lot of film and certainly a lot of doors from your company.

We have also seen a few websites pop up offering "do it yourself" cabinet refacing. The premise is that homeowners can measure their existing doors to the nearest eight inch and then simply order the doors, drawers and peel stick to remodel their own Kitchen. For less than $1,000, a homeowner could make their Kitchen look new before renting it out or reselling the property.

If your company is interested in creating an offering for the reface community you should work with DACKOR. It certainly wouldn't hurt to discuss. We maintain the stock, require no minimums, offer installation instructions and have the technical expertise to help you build this customer base. Be sure to visit www.dackor.com/reface or call us at 407.654.5013.