Kitchen Distributors Inc.*

What began in 1970 as a moonlighting job has blossomed into a $5 million business for Kitchen Distributors Inc. of Fayetteville.

David Albert, a shop teacher at Ramey Junior High, and his schoolteacher wife, Carol, began dabbling in woodworking for extra money. The business, which began as Dave’s Wood Shop, topped $1 million for the first time in 1996. It now employs 37 people and boasts 14,700 SF of warehouse space.

Carol Albert said 2001 marked the company’s biggest year in sales. It was the culmination, she said, of corporate streamlining that began in 1996 when the company hired a consultant to make it more efficient.

“We were just running the business by the seat of our pants,” Carol Albert said. “But the consultant showed us different ways to keep track of costs and set up systems for purchase orders and reports. It changed our whole organization.”

The company designs and builds cabinets and also offers a line of factory-built models. In 2001, Kitchen Distributors began selling Shulte closets and Miele coffee makers.

Albert said if a client wants to spend $3,000 or $300,000 on a new kitchen, Kitchen Distributors has the resources to accommodate the project. The kitchen is the most expensive and most active room in the house, she said, and the company does preliminary interviews to make sure customers get the most out of that space.

Recently, Kitchen Distributors also invested in a $100,000 computerized panel saw and point-to-point router to better serve its customers.