Living the Dream

As the owner of Core Cabinet Production in Richland, Wash., Rob Bird (above) has made great strides since purchasing the company in 2022. A former operations manager in a corporate setting, Bird seized a monumental career change when the small custom cabinetry business went up for sale. With a vision to grow, he has added employees, is moving to new a shop with double the space, and expanded the client base with whole home cabinetry and closet options.

“My goal all along was to grow the business because there’s a demand for it here,” says Bird. “The Tri-Cities area is growing. When Covid hit, a lot of people were moving out of Seattle because they wanted the nicer weather over here. Here it’s sunny most of the time, and over there is lots of rain and overcast.”

Bird credits his wife Jeana, co-owner and bookkeeper, for encouraging him to take the plunge. Getting going the first year was no easy feat. He worked day and night, learning the ropes from the previous owner. 

Bird grew up in Hillsboro, Ore., just outside of Portland, and previously only thought of woodworking as a hobby to pursue later in life.

“My experience with woodworking is that I took it in shop class and loved it, and always had this dream that when I retire, I would have a big, detached garage with a bunch of woodworking equipment, and build furniture. I used to watch the Yankee Workshop on Saturday mornings.”

He attended Bringham Young University in Provo, Utah, where he met Jeana, and the couple lived in Utah for about 17 years before moving to Richland in 2019 to be closer to family. Bird had worked in business management for over a decade for a national composite materials company managing their distribution, but the stress took a toll and got particularly worse during Covid.

“I was ready to get out from behind the desk and I was just frustrated with my career position. It didn’t feel like I was going to advance at all. I’ve always had the entrepreneurial spirit and wanted to do something, but there was a risk in taking that jump and having small kids at the time. I had corporate insurance, paid time off and all of that,” says Bird, who has five children with Jeana spanning ages eight through 18.

“But I was unhappy, working a lot of hours, and during Covid work got busier because I worked in the supply chain where all these issues of pricing were happening. There would be days where I didn’t even go outside because I was working.”

In 2021, the couple sought custom cabinets and visited a local shop. The experience got Bird thinking, and months later, his father mentioned a woodworking shop for sale.

“It was such a coincidence that we had visited a shop and then this became available. The previous owner had started the business around 2004. He was getting out of the cabinet business because he was getting a little older, and I thought this would be great.

“I went to work for him for a couple of days to see what it’s actually like, and I had to convince the bank that was going to loan us the money that I can run a cabinet shop having no prior experience except for helping my dad fix up homes we lived in when we were younger.”

Financing eventually fell into place, and the closing took place May 6, 2022. The purchase included the machines and client list, and the owner agreed to stay on for the first six months. Bird changed the company name from Core Cabinet to Core Cabinet Production.

To expand upon the former owner’s offerings, Bird started with the list of builders the company previously worked with and developed those relationships.

“When I came on, I met the largest of the multi-family home builders in the area, and they’re some of my biggest clients right now, as far as volume. They’re really good to work with.”

The shop serves the residential market and provides cabinetry for an entire home, rather than just kitchens as the previous owner had. The market covers the Tri-Cities area, which includes Richland, Kennewick and Pasco. Most jobs are through builders. Homeowners are a distant second at about 20 percent.

“I like that ratio,” says Bird. “Working with individual customers, there’s a lot more handling that has to happen because they don’t necessarily know all the options and they want to be educated and involved. 

“We specialize and focus on frameless cabinets, full overlay. We might do a framed portion on a bookcase or something, but overall, we don’t do framed cabinets. We’re just not set up for it. Frameless was how I’ve been trained.”

Bird has four full-time employees and two part-timers. He’s had success recruiting new employees through the local schools with wood programs. He’d like to add an in-house designer.

“Design work requires a lot of time, and that’s time that I don’t necessarily have since I run the shop,” says Bird. 

“Business has been steady. Last spring we hit our first bit of a lull when a project ended, and we didn’t have jobs ramped up in time. We have a bunch ahead, so it’s a matter of managing production on my end. We’re working through that. But we’ve been very fortunate and blessed to have a lot of work.”

The new 12,000-sq.-ft. shop is just down the road, and Bird is eager to add new equipment and have space for larger projects.

“About a year ago, we were wondering if we should buy this building and add onto it or build a new building. We decided to buy some land and build our own building, because then we could lay out the shop how we wanted to, with opportunities for expansion.”

Bird feels good about the decision as his company’s offerings are unique to the area. 

“I know of three other custom shops here in town, and there are several other design centers where they use manufactured cabinets. I haven’t met any of them personally, but there’s enough business where I don’t feel like I’m trying to fight for the work, which is good, because I don’t want to step on any toes. I want to grow my business and try to meet as much demand as I can.”

Recently, Bird started offering closet options based on recommendations from fellow members of the Cabinet Makers Association. 

“I joined the CMA and talked to others about how to grow this business. They said if I’m not doing closets, I’m passing up opportunity. For me, my builders like that I can offer closets too. All the equipment you need to build closets, you already have so why not use it?”

Bird invested in a new CNC at the start of 2024, a Front Range model that replaces an outdated machine.

“The equipment that we purchased was at the end of its life, but we knew that going into it. The Front Range brand is not a big name, but they have a great technician based out of Denver who services it and it’s running smoothly.”

Bird is focused on his staff as much as he is his clients and wants to make sure he retains the help he has.

“When you have a business where you’re accountable for everything at the end of the day, and when you hire an employee, you’re responsible for providing them with work and giving them the pay that they deserve. 

“So right now, the stress on me is if we’re between jobs. I don’t want to send them home. They’ve got bills to pay. If I hire them and I don’t take care of them, they might end up leaving and I’d have to retrain someone else.”

On the flip side, he’s glad to be out of the corporate world.

“We really felt there was a divine power here and everything worked together for us. It’s been really hard, there are a lot of challenges, and a lot of hours, but I’ve loved it. I still work about the same amount of hours, but this is much more satisfying and fulfilling. And the goal is, once we get to a certain point, I can pare back, with the end-all of having a decent work/life balance,” Bird says. 

Learn more at corecabinetproduction.com.