STYLE MEETS SUBSTANCE
Well-made, mid-priced kitchens and baths offer a winning combination for consumers
In 2007, when the world was on the cusp of a recession, Jonathan Glick rolled the retail dice by betting consumers would pay a bit more to get well-designed, good-quality kitchen and bath cabinets that would perform well over time.
“If everyone is buying skinny jeans, you don’t go out and buy pink bellbottoms just because they’re cheap,” the co-owner of Cutler Kitchen and Bath said at the time.
“I felt the same was true of kitchens and baths,” adds Glick, who joined Cutler in 1999 after marketing stints with such high-profile brands as Calvin Klein.
It looks like the wager is paying off. In Canada, business is booming; Cutler (www.cutlerkitchenandbath.com) has retail presence in big box stores across the country, while in the U.S., sales of bathroom vanities across electronic selling sites like Wayfair are robust, and the company is building relationships with the thousands of smaller independent showrooms that thrive south of the border.
Five years ago, its owners consolidated multiple manufacturing and sales locations into a 200,000 square-foot facility in Vaughan, Ont. that now serves as a manufacturing and administrative site, as well as a showroom for contractors and designers — a move Glick describes as a “massive undertaking that was a big cultural shift for everybody.”
Recently, Glick incorporated an outlet component, where consumers can buy reduced price product caused by returns, over-runs and discontinued lines. Open to the public Thursday through Saturday, it will also host the occasional “blow-out” sale, and will offer design and measurement services for a fee, half of which counts against the cost of a completed order.
Glick says style remains a fundamental driver in kitchen and bath cabinetry sales, adding that having a semi-custom offering, with cabinet sizes available in three-inch increments, starting at nine inches, further defines his brand.
Standard depth is a reasonably generous 15 inches, and interiors can be done in plain white, grey, or matched to the exterior finish. There are also lots of what Glick describes as the “bells and whistles” — soft-close hardware and hinges, rotating trays (sometimes referred to as a Lazy Susan), concealed waste and recycling bins, and side pantry racks.
There are more than 15 handle styles to choose from, and drawers can be either affordable double-wall or more traditional dovetail construction. Typically, a kitchen can be made in about four weeks.
Hardware is by Grass (www. grasscanada.com) a German company known for reliable and well-made internal fastenings. Cabinet material is anti-microbial, cleans easily with a damp cloth, and emits no formaldehyde. Glick also points out that if and when the scratch-resistant surface does get dinged, it’s an easier fix than real wood.
“If you scratch a wood door or it gets stained, you have to replace the door — and the new door will never look like other doors in the kitchen,” he explains. “If you scratch this door we will make you a new one and you will never know the difference, because there’s no fading and no discolouration.”
(To see a powder room makeover I did several years ago using product supplied by Cutler, go to www. aroundthehouse.ca)
Industry watchers used to say that trends in Canada typically ran about five years behind overseas, but Glick says they now run pretty much apace.
“We follow European trends very carefully, and we see the same colours and finishes emerging,” he says. “And there are all these new things we can do with (digital printing) — like follow the cathedrals of the wood.” (Cathedrals are the peaked designs made when wood is flat sawn.)
Glick is confident that focusing on style, affordability and quality will continue to drive sales and brand recognition.
“I think we hit that sweet spot of mid-level product that’s very much needed,” he says, “with a well-constructed and designed Canadian-made product with a 15-year warranty at thousands of dollars less than you could pay.”