KREAMER, PA — Wood-Mode, the custom cabinet icon whose fate has been shrouded in speculation and uncertainty since its abrupt May closure, will apparently experience a rebirth.
Bill French, owner of Middleburg, PA-based Professional Building Systems Inc., a manufacturer of custom modular homes, announced Friday that he has completed the acquisition of Wood-Mode’s assets from the company’s primary lender, Great Rock Capital, sparing the 77-year-old manufacturer from liquidation. Plans are reportedly to have Wood-Mode’s Kreamer, PA factory reopened on a limited basis within weeks.
“I am very happy to be able to let you know that we have completed the purchase of assets of Wood-Mode Inc.,” French announced on the “Wood-Mode Friends” Facebook page, an online forum for former employees, dealers and others. “I look forward to meeting many of you soon … and to having a stable company providing a quality product.”
“I know,” French said, “that the past three months have been difficult.”
While terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, the transaction reportedly involves the creation of a new corporate entity and includes the Wood-Mode name, along with the company’s factory, equipment and inventory. Debt will reportedly remain the responsibility of Wood-Mode’s former owners, Robert Gronlund and his son Brooks Gronlund, neither of whom are said to have a formal role with the new company.
Neither Robert Gronlund, who served as Wood-Mode’s CEO, nor Brooks Gronlund, its former president/COO, has commented publicly since Wood-Mode’s closure rocked the kitchen and bath industry, prompting widespread speculation about the factors that led to the apparent demise of a Many have started relationships with alternative sources of supply. Others are still waiting, two months later, to learn the fate of cabinet orders placed prior to the closure.company that for decades produced perhaps the industry’s most highly respected custom cabinet brand.
French, who did not reply to inquiries from Kitchen & Bath Design News, was quoted several weeks ago as saying that he made the then-tentative acquisition public in advance of its completion to allay the concerns of former employees, who were notified of the abrupt shutdown shortly before being escorted by police from the company’s 1.3-million-sq.-ft. facility. French said at that time that he expected an agreement to be finalized by no later than July 19. The acquisition took several weeks beyond that date to be finalized, however.
Wood-Mode, which had experienced financial challenges for several years, had, under former ownership, been seeking financing and other options, including a potential acquisition that would have enabled the company to continue operations. Those efforts collapsed in May, however, when at least one prospective buyer backed away from a deal and Wood-Mode learned that its primary lender was unwilling to provide the funding necessary to continue operations. Wood-Mode officials then announced that the company had no recourse but to abruptly shutter its factory, blindsiding employees, government officials, sales reps and suppliers, and leaving the company’s expansive network of U.S., Canadian and South American dealers in a state of limbo.
Wood-Mode had 938 employees at the time of its closure. At its height, prior to the 2008 recession, the company employed some 2,000 workers, including many with long work histories and family ties to the company.
French said on Facebook that Robert Gessner, Wood-Mode’s former director of manufacturing, and Rod Hunter, former director of service operations, “will be calling people as needed, and applications for employment will be available soon.” Both Gessner and Hunter have reportedly been working with French throughout the acquisition process.
French was quoted as saying he has begun contacting former Wood-Mode employees regarding a potential return to work. Plans are reportedly to add management, maintenance, purchasing agents, sales and office workers over the next few weeks, before beginning production. Wood-Mode’s start-up will reportedly be gradual, but French has said that hiring 200 workers would be a realistic benchmark in the months ahead, that a workforce of up to 500 employees could potentially be achieved. An undetermined number of the company’s former employees have apparently since found other jobs or have said on social media that they would not return. Others have indicated they’d welcome a return to work if circumstances were right.
French was also quoted as saying that he feels the Wood-Mode brand remains viable despite the devastating blow dealt to suppliers, sales reps and dealers by the company’s abrupt shutdown, and that he is currently in the process of contacting Wood-Mode dealers in an effort to regain their faith and secure their business.
Many of those dealers – once exclusive to Wood-Mode and its semi-custom line, Brookhaven – have since turned to replacement cabinet lines while redefining their own corporate identities and allying the concerns of consumers who had placed cabinet orders prior to the closure.
While an undetermined number of cabinet projects were said to be in various stages of production at the time of the company’s closure, delivery of finished orders will reportedly begin immediately and product that dealers cannot use because they’ve filled those cabinet orders elsewhere will be sold as samples.
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