July 22, 2024

This paid piece is sponsored by the Sioux Falls Development Foundation/Forward Sioux Falls.

As Showplace Cabinetry marks its 25th anniversary in the Sioux Falls area, the manufacturer is beginning a major expansion.

An estimated $25 million investment will expand the company’s frameless production facility in Harrisburg from 76,800 square feet to 180,000 square feet, positioning the locally owned business for current and future demand.

“We’re more than doubling the size of the facility while also making significant investments in our framed facility,” CEO Bill Allen said. “We initially were going to go a little smaller with the expansion, but we anticipate the growth is going to be there, and we want to play offense instead of defense and be ready for the business.”

Since its founding in 1999 by a group of local owners, Showplace Cabinetry has grown from a small startup to a national brand, providing semi-custom cabinetry to homes nationwide through a network of more than 1,000 independent kitchen and bath dealers.

With annual sales of approximately $140 million, the company ships to all 50 states from its campus off of North Cliff Avenue in Harrisburg.

“Showplace Cabinetry is an incredible local success story, and we’re fortunate to have them in the Sioux Falls area,” said Bob Mundt, president and CEO of the Sioux Falls Development Foundation.

“This is a forward-looking company that knows how to attract and retain a quality workforce while evolving its operations for the future.”

The company now is 100 percent employee-owned, with nearly 700 team members year-round and slightly more depending on the season.

“We have a lot of people who have worked here for years and have seen their stock value increase to where it’s the most significant part of their retirement,” Allen said.

“It’s a very nice benefit, and new employees become part of the ESOP after their first year, so it becomes an amazing thing for our team.”

Showplace has worked with the Sioux Falls Development Foundation and Forward Sioux Falls to participate in workforce-related programming.

“We have a long-standing partnership, and I enjoy working with them,” Allen said. “It’s just been a good partnership with an organized, forward-looking organization. We like to show people our facility and often do educational tours, plus we’ve started working with the Build Dakota Scholarship program for the first time this summer.”

The Showplace campus in Harrisburg includes the two cabinetry plants lined by a warehouse corridor, for a total of about a half-million square feet under one roof. In the framed facility, a robotic spray line was installed this summer that’s greatly increasing efficiency, Allen said.

“It was built in Germany with almost a year lead time, so we’re just starting to run production, and it’s designed to greatly increase capacity,” he said. “It takes what used to be a manual labor job of spraying and wiping stain and now the machine does it with speed and quality that’s really impressive. It’s a dramatic change.”

Take a look at the installation here:

Showplace also has made significant technology investments in its Beresford manufacturing plant.

“We’re taking some processes that used to be very manual, like finishing, and finding effective ways to automate them,” Allen said. “Automation can be a buzzword in some companies, but it makes a lot of sense in ours.”

The housing market drives business in multiple ways at Showplace.

After a “dramatic increase” during the pandemic, “we held on to that level of activity and didn’t drop back like some businesses did nationwide,” Allen said.

While new construction is softer nationally, “people are staying in houses longer, which drives the remodeling market,” Allen said.

“And kitchens and bathrooms are often the first things people remodel, so we’re fortunate to be in that business.”

Plus, styles are always changing. Showplace has a partnership with Sherwin-Williams to paint any color in the Sherwin-Williams lineup.

“We’re seeing an evolution now from huge demand for white painted cabinetry to more light-colored wood stains, a weathered or barn wood look, and lots of colors being used,” Allen said.

“So you see people updating kitchens to stay up with those trends. We also think there’s some pent-up demand in the housing market that will show when interest rates drop, and overall we think the demographics are good for the industry going forward, so that’s another reason our expansion makes sense.”

While most of the business is residential, Showplace has provided cabinets for some multifamily projects, including Railyard Flats in Sioux Falls, and has done some commercial work with cabinetry for local schools.

The framed facility, or “mother ship,” as Allen calls it, builds about 600 cabinets daily and has the ability to do more.

When the expansion is done for the frameless facility, it will be able to produce 500 to 600 cabinets daily too.

“We’re seeing demand for frameless cabinetry increase as it’s a more contemporary look and sometimes a lower price point, although you see a lot of upgrading to higher-end products with it too,” Allen said.

“We just got into that business in 2015 and believed it was primed for growth, and that’s what we’ve experienced with it and why we need more capacity.”

The general contractor for the expansion is Journey Construction. The hope is to begin operations there by early 2026. It likely won’t be the last new addition for the campus either, Allen said.

“We own enough real estate in the area to do probably one more expansion after this on this campus, and then we’ll be looking at real estate,” he said. “But at this point, this expansion should fill our needs for the next three to five years.”

Forward Sioux Falls is a joint venture between the Greater Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce and the Sioux Falls Development Foundation and is widely respected as the premier economic driver for the Sioux Falls region. To learn more and connect, click here.