AN EYE FOR QUALITY

It’s much the same with the company’s marketing plan. “We don’t have an extensive external marketing campaign to get people to come to us directly, but that could change in the future,” Walsh says. “Again, we respect the relationships we have with our contractors and kitchen and bath shops, and we don’t want them to feel like we’re stepping on their toes.” Many of the people who come through the company’s doors are there because of its reputation or a referral. Walsh says after taking over the company the cousins did a little bit of print marketing, mainly because that was the approach taken by the previous owner. Today, their marketing is focused on social media and the company’s new website. “We’re not devoting large amounts of dollars to marketing,” Walsh says. “That could change very easily through. We’re still trying to find our niche there.” Getting commercial jobs is a bit more straightforward, since the company has a full-time sales team calling on potential clients. Still, asked to name the company’s specialty, Walsh quickly answers “quality and customer service.” “We pride ourselves on our quality,” he says. “We’re investing in the best tooling and the newest machinery. Our edges and seams are second-to-none. A lot of companies that are doing this by hand can’t get the quality we produce.” As for customer service, in a perfect world Walsh says it’s not impossible to measure a job on Monday and have it installed by Friday. “That’s if there’s a super rush, and everything is perfect and the materials are there,” he says. “Typically, we say five-to-10 business days.” And, that’s over a market area that extends across all of northern Ohio, parts of northwestern West Virginia and as far east as Pittsburgh, or approximately 120-150 miles from Rocksolid’s shop. Part of the company’s secret – besides its automated shop – is nine installation crews. Walsh says one of those crews installs cabinets and the other eight install countertops; two of the eight deal strictly with solid surface. and the rest install stone. That’s another thing the cousins are still working on: how to cross-train the crews so they can install the whole spectrum of the company’s countertops. Both in the shop and on the install crews, Walsh says the men were fortunate to inherit a good group of employees. “We were concerned as to how the employees would feel about new ownership management,” he says. “A lot of them have been here for a very long time, and many of the same people are still here. There have been some coming and going, which is just the nature of any business, but we’ve been pretty strong with our core people.” Rocksolid does have a training program, and Walsh says new employees are often recruited through word-of-mouth, or through digital channels. It’s a mix that appeared to be on the cusp of paying off before the economy shut down. J.B. Walsh says their goal is to grow 20% year-over-year; to keep things pointed in the right direction, the cousins monitor their financial performance weekly. “Typically, January and February are very slow months, but this February was the best since the company started,” he says. “We had a stronger month in February than any month since we’ve owned the company and March was looking even better. Then we ran into a wall.” The coronavirus lockdown reduced the company to doing only what Walsh describes as “essential jobs,” such as completing work for homes that were left without a working kitchen, and laying off a portion of its workforce. However, it did apply for – and receive -- a Paycheck Protection Plan (PPP) loan. “It’s made a large difference for us and allowed us to bring back many of our talented team members earlier than later,” he says. “Although things are now less than ‘normal,’ we’re bouncing back and our orders for July are forecasting to be almost flat from 2019.” Overall, Walsh says it appears the industry is bouncing back in the Cleveland area, but challenges will remain at the company moves into 2021. “I think we’ll continue to have a strong economy with a reasonable correction,” he concludes. “We continue to have a long-term growth plan, but it’s more conservative than before. We’re continuing to find ways to be more profitable to offset lower top-line sales growth.”