Homecrest Industries Builds New Home For Manufacturing And Corporate Headquarters

Furniture World Magazine

Homecrest Industries, a leader in the manufacture of innovative casual and outdoor furniture since 1953, is pleased to announce the opening of its new manufacturing facility and corporate offices adjacent to its original plant in Wadena, Minnesota. Groundbreaking for the new state-of-the-art 210,000 square foot facility took place about one year ago. The new plant moved towards fully operational status, and the corporate headquarters were moved to their new location over the company's annual maintenance shutdown period in September of 1999. The new high-tech facility will start operating in October. Don Bottemiller, president of Homecrest Industries, provided some insight into his company's ambitious timetable to erect and occupy its new facility. As son of the company's founder, the late Mert Bottemiller, Don provides a unique historical perspective into the new expansion. "I've been working at Homecrest since 1966, and the very first project that I had with the company was putting another addition onto an old facility. Since then, we've built additions and remodeled repeatedly over the years. But what we did this year was build a new facility that uses state-of-the-art material handling, scheduling, and finishing lines dedicated to the production of the highest quality casual and outdoor furniture. It has been exciting for me to be involved in new construction instead of remodeling our original facility," he said. Bottemiller explained that it has been an intensive project because his management team essentially took what would normally be a two-year process of developing a plan, financing the project, and executing the construction of the facility, and collapsed it into a one-year timetable. "It has been particularly challenging this past year, not only because of our expansion, but also because of the increased demand for Homecrest products. It's been tough, but we have been able to continue to supply our dealers on a timely basis throughout this past season and, at the same time, develop and move into the new facility. Homecrest Industries has grown dramatically over the past decade, and the new plant will allow the company increased capacity and higher levels of quality control with the latest in material handling and manufacturing technology. New Systems Bring New Manufacturing Efficiencies: The material handling systems that have been introduced will handle all the frame components through the entire nine-step finishing and powder coating process. Aluminum and steel product will now be put into different pre-treatment, primer, and paint systems. This means the capacity of the finishing systems has been doubled. In addition, material handling has been improved through the consolidation of the manufacturing processes into one contiguous facility. This will increase the ability to turn inventory both in work in process and raw materials. Homecrest will continue to utilize the majority of their old facility as a distribution center and warehouse to provide faster in-season service to customers. High Technology Solutions: The new Homecrest plant is also equipped with the newest information technology (IT) systems. A larger and faster computer for the company's operating system has been installed. The system is current with the newest releases of the operating software, MAPICS. Every PC has been upgraded to faster operating speeds and larger screens for ease of use by the employees and to meet the customers' requests while on-line. It's all completely networked from front to back and from building to building. This allows an order to be checked from anywhere in the facility to help improve customer service. Building a Brighter Future: President of Homecrest, Don Bottemiller, reflected on the growth of the company that began with his father's small furniture store in downtown Wadena, Minnesota in 1945. Since that time, he has grown the company to become Wadena's largest employer and reported sales increases of over 20 percent this past season. "Employment has increased tremendously over the years. We're not exactly sure how much more it will increase, but our sales dollars are forecast to increase substantially again this year. This new facility is an investment in our future as a company, the families we employ, and the economic growth of our region," he concluded. Homecrest Industries is a four-time winner of the Manufacturer Leadership Award presented by the Casual Furniture Retailers Association for business ethics, product design, customer service, and quality. For more information on Homecrest casual and outdoor furniture, a free color brochure, and the Homecrest dealer nearest you, call 1-888-346-4852, or write Homecrest Industries, P.O. Box 350, 140 Madison Ave SE, Wadena, MN 56482. Visit Homecrest on the Internet at www.homecrest.com. Homecrest Industries Incorporated: A Company History: Homecrest Industries began in 1945 as a furniture store in downtown Wadena, Minnesota about 90 miles northwest of St Cloud, Minnesota, where it's still located today. The company's founders, Mert Bottemiller and his brother-in-law, Al Engelmann, ran the furniture store on Jefferson Street in quiet downtown Wadena until 1953 when the spark of entrepreneurship struck them both. One day upon the arrival of a shipment of hassocks at the little two man store, Bottemiller took a look at the quality and construction of the furniture and decided that they could make a better hassock at a lower price--and they did! By 1956 the two co-owners of Homecrest obtained a patent on a unique design for a swivel rocker mechanism, sold their retail operation, and began manufacturing the first Homecrest swivel rocker. Designed as indoor furniture and coined the B25, the new rocker was revolutionary for its comfort, small size, and removable, replaceable cushion. This marked the beginning of an extensive line of indoor furniture. In these early days, the metal fabricating operation and the cushion operation were located in separate areas of Wadena with the metal manufacturing facility located in an old brewery building in the southwest part of town. Time tested, the original swivel rocker mechanism is still an important part in the unique line of Homecrest outdoor casual furniture today. In 1960, the company expanded its efforts to include the manufacture of outdoor casual furniture. The firm quickly started growing from a regional to a national concern. With this growing demand, the two partners merged the two separate manufacturing facilities under one roof in 1962. The year 1973 marked a significant turning point in the history of Homecrest. After the death of Mr. Engelmann in May of that year, the company was sold to the Sperry and Hutchinson Company, of New York--the folks of S&H Green Stamps. Homecrest remained a wholly owned subsidiary of S&H until December of 1980 when ownership returned to the heartland. On December 5, 1980, Don Bottemiller, Larry Calhoun, and John Miles purchased the company back from S&H. Homecrest remains a locally owned industry to this day. Today, Homecrest is the largest private employer in the region employing an average of 375 people from 14 communities surrounding Wadena and operates two full-time shifts year round. During peak production months, Homecrest employment may reach 450 workers.