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Homestead Woodworks Specializes in Quality Cabinetry and Millwork
Homestead Woodworks offers a one-stop-shop for the design, manufacture, and installation of cabinetry and millwork. Since forming over 35 years ago in the small village of Hawkesville, Ontario, they have consistently provided clients with high quality millwork, delivered in a timely, courteous, and professional manner. Throughout their history, their company has evolved significantly in terms of size and capacity – they started with only a few employees working in a 3,000-square-foot shop, and they now have a much larger team with a 27,000-square-foot facility – but their values have remained steadfast.
From the start, Homestead Woodworks has believed in providing clients with excellent value and in treating all of their stakeholders with fairness and respect – and those values continue to power the company today.
“We say what we do and we do what we say,” says Clare Martin, president of Homestead Woodworks, and the son of company founder Orlan Martin. “In today’s marketplace, we tend to shine above the crowd because there are too many people who don’t do what they say.”
Homestead Woodworks traces its heritage back to 1981, when Orlan started a construction company called Country Lane Builders. Later, he decided that having a mill shop would be a good compliment to the construction company, and he founded Homestead Woodworks in 1987. Orlan himself had a background in millwork, as he used to build cabinets with his uncle, so the evolution was a natural one.
Clare, for his part, joined the family business in 1991. At that point, Homestead Woodworks was “just a four-man shop, an auxiliary company to the construction company,” he recalls. As the years progressed, however, Homestead continued to grow into its own. In 2005, that growth culminated in Homestead Woodworks becoming its own corporation.
Today, both Country Lane Builders and Homestead Woodworks are owned by the Martin family, but are run independently. Homestead still does a percentage of their work for Country Lane, but a higher percentage they do for external contractors. These days, that work includes a variety of project types, including custom homes, luxury condos, and high-end offices. Again, Clare says, those clients are typically drawn to Homestead Woodworks because of their founding values, and the high quality that results from those values:
“Everyone here is passionate about what they do,” he says. “We’re craftsman. We care about doing a good job. We’re not chasing down the bottom dollar or trying to be the cheapest on the market, because if you do that then you are forever compromising quality. All of our guys are passionate about making sure their quality stands out.”
“Our goal is to achieve the best quality we can with the best efficiency we can,” he adds. “Our bottom line is that whatever we deliver, it has to be good quality and it has to be good value.”
Over the years, Homestead Woodworks has delivered a wide variety of high quality wood products, including built-in cabinetry, custom furniture, architectural millwork, front entrance systems, staircases, timber work, and more. According to Clare, supplying this variety has necessitated a specialized workforce:
“Because we’re diversified, we have specialized people. Some of our people specialize on the commercial side, some on cabinetry, and others in the front doors.”
In recent years, Homestead Woodworks has actually come to be particularly well known for their front doors. All of their doors are custom designed using wood species, and they are installed with construction techniques designed to withstand harsh Canadian winters. Several years ago, the company even received national certification for their door system.
“The warmth and beauty of a wooden front door adds charm as it provides a first impression of your home’s character,” Clare says. “Our front doors make a great statement.”
Also in recent years, Homestead Woodworks has earned recognition for their work with New Horizon Development Group. That work includes finishing interior lobbies and trimming suites in towers. According to Bryan Gingerich, sales and project manager, the relationship with New Horizon resulted from a referral given by a designer, who spread the word about the value of their work.
Bryan has been with Homestead Woodworks for about eight years, and has personally seen the company make great strides in the commercial sector.
“We’re seeing quite a bit of interest in the commercial condo world,” he says. “We’ve been just stepping into that briefly in the last couple of years. That’s where I spend most of my time, in luxury condos.”
Once again, Clare credits Homestead Woodworks’ burgeoning success in that sector – and the company’s success in general, with all their clients, in all sectors – to the values his father instilled in the company right from the beginning. Clare says that Orlan “set the tone,” and the company still operates on the same note to this day:
“Orlan was well-known in the community for being a solutions person, and that has driven us at Homestead,” Clare says. “Part of our company creed is that if we can’t service a customer, we actually want to find a solution for them elsewhere, because we want to remain being a solutions company.”
That solutions-orientated mindset has been rewarded with client loyalty, Clare says. “At any time, about 30 percent of our current client list is repeat customers.”
Earning that loyalty is a process, Clare explains, and that process almost always begins with bringing clients to their showroom. He describes that showroom as warm-feeling, and says it showcases lots of wood samples and stain colors.
“We spend a lot of time with the customers there to find out what they want and understand how they live, so we can them give good options.”
In a lot of cases, client loyalty is also a natural result of employee loyalty, as workers that are engaged in their work and care about the company they work for tend to service clients better. According to Clare, that’s definitely the case with Homestead Woodworks, a company with a lot of employees who have been there for a long-time. Many employees, Clare says, have been Homestead for at least 10 years, while others have been there as long as 20-to-25 years.
Clare explains that because employees spend so much time together, they’ve become like family. “Beyond woodwork, they become friends, and they become a resource for each other – in times of need. That’s what the family relationship is. I believe that’s why people enjoy coming to work. That, and the fact of having the fun of working with wood.”
Bryan adds that there are a number of reasons why he personally considers Homestead Woodworks a good place to work. One of the main reasons being, he sees the ownership “care for their employees in multiple ways.”
“If you need time off for family, it’s granted to you without any questions asked. The value we place in family is very, very high.”
Bryan also appreciates the team environment, and always being surrounded by interesting custom woodworking projects. “So I’d say it’s a well-rounded package.”
Moving on to the company’s relationship with sub-contractors, suppliers, and vendors, Bryan says, “It’s been really great. They really appreciate the punctuality of how we deliver our product, and the quality of what we produce. Also, they can rely on the schedule that we give them. There’s just a really good trust there. We’re blessed to have so many good suppliers, and I think that’s reciprocal with their feelings toward us. They also enjoy the teams that we can give them to do the work.”
“As a salesman, it’s really nice to know that we have capable guys that are also going to be building your product. It’s one thing to sell it, but it’s another thing to follow through with what you’ve sold.”
“Suppliers are extremely important to us to make us successful,” Clare points out. He says the company has solid, long-term relationships with suppliers, and one of the reasons is that they pay their bills on time. It’s not uncommon, he says, for suppliers to express appreciation for the long-standing relationship. “They really come on board when we have special requests, which allows us to service our customers better.”
Leaning in
“Lean is basically where everybody is empowered in the company to make improvements. The bottom line is, we want to make sure whatever we’re doing is adding value to the customer. That has resulted in many improvements within the shop and out on site, in finding ways to improve processes, quality, and speed of things. Our employees are even saying now they are taking the lean approach home because it’s made their life so much easier. They are leaning out their home.”
When looking at what the future holds for Homestead Woodworks, Clare says it’s not so much about size and numbers, but about maintaining the company’s reputation, and keeping the quality of their products intact. “My goal is not to double the size; my goal is more about making sure we are still a good company.”
However, when Clare does consider his projects and plans, he says growth is on the company’s horizon in the near future.
“We’ve got drawings now for doubling the size of our shop in a phased approach. Probably half of that will be in phase one, which is the third time we’re growing in the shop size.”
“When we look at the growth that we’ve had, we see a slow and meaningful growth. That means we do have to expand the shop at some point.”
Shop expansion also means enlarging the workforce with properly trained employees, to make that growth possible.
“We are landing some people from other companies, but we also grow a lot from within,” Clare concludes. “We have a lot of very young help, and put a lot of energy into taking the young help and training them.”
Clare points out that plans for the future also include a management changeover spanning a 10-to-15-year period. During that period, the company will bring in third generation of managers.
“Our goal is to have a well-run reputable business with the third generation in full leadership.”
For more on Homestead Woodworks, their process, their range of products, and examples of past projects – and to get in touch with Clare, Bryan, and the rest of the team – visit https://www.homesteadwoodworks.ca/
