Homing in on specialty millwork

f f ANY MARKETING analysts view the 1990s as a lUl time to "get back home." Specialty millwork products are excellent at evoking warm, personal touches, and dealers mindful of this can best merchandise these high margin extras.

"People are putting off those trips to Hawaii or abroad. They're worried if they're even going to have a job. So their interests are with home and family," says Bill Anders, Pacific Millwork Inc. "Recreate the warm feeling of the fireplace and the rug or grandma and grandpa sitting out on the white porch in a rocking chair or a swing, waving to the neighbors."

Effective specialty millwork displays trigger similar responses. "Don't just show a mantel board," he explains. "The people who have been successful have actually taken a firebox and a mantel, put candlesticks on each end, and decorated it for Christmas with stockings. A lot of mantels are sold as the holiday season approaches. People want that cozy, cuddle-up-to-the-fire kind of thing. They buy that value. The product becomes secondary to what they want to feel."

Story at a Glance

Warm, inviting displays sell mantels, spindles and other specialties... how to display and sell them:

Payless Cashways worked with Superior Fireplace Co. to create a total hearth area look similar to the vignettes commonly used for kitchen and bath products. "They have an endcap display with three fireplaces and they put marble and mantel around it," says Superior's Jude Bentley. "Th"y put signage on top showing how to install it and have everything needed at the point of purchase. (The display, signage and cross merchandising) complement each other."

A similar effect can be achieved even in minimal space. She says, "Home Depot carries one (mantel) line and it's all special order. The only thing there (on display) is the mantel and pictures of what you can do."

Ease of installation is anotherselling point in markets ripe for upgrades, says Bentley. "Most mantels come ready to install. You really only need nails and a drill, maybe some screws. You cut the legs down and stick a skirt behind it. It's almost one size fits all."

Stair parts are more difficult to merchandise. "It's really hard to inventory spindles," Anders says. "Peoplejust don't say, 'Let's change our spindles. I'm tired of these round spindles. Let's get some square ones.' The majority go into new or add-on construction."

Yet spindles are a natural accent to porches and decksand deck displays. "Spindles give decks that old, colonial feeling," Anders explains. "The sale starts when a customer looks across his cracked patio at his brown grass. He goes down to the lumberyard to buy a garden hose and sees this deckthat's built there. The concept gets planted inhis mind."

Giving attention to fancy millwork can make up for necessarily low margins on other products. "We've increased sales 70 to 83% just by putting in a good rack," reveals Sara Bills, S&S Wood Specialties, which distributes mantels, shelving, railing, dowel rods and other millwork items. "Still, a lot of buyers won't even talk to us' They say it's not a priority. They're missing out. The biggest home center chain in the nation doesn't (stress millwork) and they don't move a third of what they could on dowel rods."

Often it's the little extras that provide the biggest profits'