Manufacturing
2019 Washington Manufacturing Awards, Building Trades Manufacturer of the Year
By Seattle Business Magazine May 1, 2019
Gold: Henrybuilt, Seattle; Silver: Cabinet Tech LLC, Yakima
This article appears in the May 2019 issue. See more about the winners of the 2019 Washington Manufacturing Awards here. Click here for a free subscription.
GOLD AWARD
Henrybuilt, Seattle
Henrybuilt operates on the philosophy that premium cabinets are not a commodity product, so the company that makes them should do things its own way. Instead of the traditional model of selling through dealers, Henrybuilt sells through its own website and showrooms. It doesn’t just produce cabinets. This year it’s launching two companies to market product-development software and systems that were engineered in-house. Henrybuilt also is rethinking traditional approaches to cabinet construction, with early tests of a new production-flow system suggesting that a kitchen project can be cut from one month to three days. The company rolled out 25 new products last year, its busiest ever. Sales were up more than 30 percent and employment jumped from 56 in 2014 to 65 this year. In 2018, Henrybuilt rolled out a profit-sharing plan for its employees.
SILVER AWARD
Cabinet Tech LLC, Yakima
If first impressions make a difference in customer attitudes, then businesses want that first impression to be a good one. Cabinet Tech LLC is in the business of supplying good first impressions, with reception counters, custom casework and architectural millwork produced for medical facilities, financial institutions, schools and commercial tenant improvements. The company started as a supplier for a sister company but has since grown to supply many large general contractors in Washington, Oregon and Alaska. Cabinet Tech’s work appears to be making a good impression on its own clients. It reported a 33 percent increase in sales last year and has more than doubled sales from five years ago.