To many, reality television represents a cultural low point, but for the Bogna family at Classic Bath Designs Inc., one sub-species of that TV genre the home improvement show is a sign of a healthy market for custom cabinetry.
“The whole remodeling industry has been in a boom the last three years,” said the company’s president, Tom Bogna.
The role that home improvement shows have played in that boom is a debatable point the refinancing craze, fueled by low-interest rates, has no doubt played a part but no matter how it’s happened Bogna isn’t complaining.
He says his customers are updating their homes by replacing original cabinetry and doors with custom-made units that can’t be found at Home Depot or Lowe’s. Classic Bath designs and manufactures cabinets, cabinet doors, counter tops and, increasingly, entertainment centers.
Bogna works mostly with professionals architects, designers and contractors although he will occasionally consult with homeowners who come into his shop. He charges about $200 to come out to their house.
An average 5-foot custom vanity costs $1,000. A full set of kitchen cabinets runs $15,000-$35,000. (Bogna said his customers typically spend another $15,000 to $20,000 on kitchen appliances.) Factor in the cost of granite counter tops, flooring, and other amenities and a typical customer is spending $50,000-plus for a complete kitchen remodel.
Higher-end features
Since the Northridge Earthquake pulled the business out of a coma in 1994, Classic Bath Designs has seen growth. Encouraged by television, customers are seeking out higher-end features such as glazed finishes (even though the labor-intense processing adds 10 percent to 15 percent to the price of the cabinets).
There is plenty of home remodeling on television these days from BBC America’s “Changing Rooms,” to Discovery Channel’s “Monster House,” to ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” and the entire lineup on cable’s Home & Garden Television.
“It’s influenced our culture and what people are willing to spend their money on,” said Bogna. “I see people watching those shows who don’t have a clue about how to do anything, but it generates interest for them to want to go out and do this stuff.”
The company’s roots go back to the 1960s when Bogna’s father Phil began making plastic vanities in his brother’s garage in San Diego. The brothers moved the business to the San Fernando Valley in 1967. When the older brother, David, died in 1981 and the economy turned sour, Phil and a partner sold out to Jensen General Industries, a local company that owned several manufacturing operations.
Phil Bogna stayed on for three years, then struck out on his own to serve the custom cabinet market Jensen had abandoned. In 1984, Classic Bath Designs was launched, and Tom Bogna joined the family business three years later.
The product line was expanded from vanities to most any home cabinet. Thinking it was poised for continued success, the Bognas signed a lease on a 12,000-square-foot building in 1990. But in short order the bottom fell out, what with the emergence of big box home improvement stores, rising interest rates and falling property values. November 1990 was the worst month ever, as revenues fell by two-thirds.
Then, the destruction caused by the Northridge earthquake intervened. “Pretty much overnight you had business,” said Tom Bogna. For 13 months, the company had to add a second shift. “It was crazy, it was chaos,” he said.
Today, the business is different than it was in the 1980s and early ’90s. Increases in labor, liability insurance and the cost of raw materials have taken significant profit out of the industry. “I don’t think things have ever gone back to the way they were,” Tom Bogna said. “The margins are just much tighter these days.”
Customers, though, remain loyal. Scott Jordan, partner in JC Plumbing ‘N’ Things in Thousand Oaks, said he has been buying cabinets from the Bognas for close to 20 years, thanks to their good craftsmanship and personal service. “It’s kind of a family-oriented business and they’re always hands on either his father or himself,” Jordan said.
Another contractor, Brad Husserl of Husserl Enterprises, buys three or four kitchens’ worth of cabinets each year from Classic Bath Designs. “I’ve weeded through a lot of subcontractors,” Husserl said. “If you find ones who are good and you can deal with, you stick with them.”
In the next three years the Bognas plan to increase production by 50 percent through the installation of computerized machinery. They’re already researching how best to do that, but only while saving money. The Bognas don’t believe in borrowing money to finance operations or buy equipment. Just as Phil used cash to buy the original used equipment, Tom is waiting until he has $150,000 or so to invest in new modern machinery.
“That’s been the philosophy of the company all along cash and carry,” Tom Bogna said. “All of our investment has been self-financed. If we can’t afford to pay for it we don’t finance it because this business is too cyclical and it’s too seasonal. You see guys go out and invest huge sums of money in high-end equipment and then they’re gone, out of business, two years later.”
