If you were in the closet industry in 2008 you remember how incoming leads slowed down and how competitive every quote became.
About 30% of my closet customers went out of business and those that stayed saw a major decrease in sales. Many smaller customers pivoted and began doing contractor work – painting, building decks – whatever they could do to increase revenue.
In 2008 while still with Eveready Hardware, we decided to develop a sliding door program for our closet customers to give them another item that they could sell to their clients.
By 2009 we built such a good sliding door business that our sales exceeded pre-recession numbers.
With soaring gas prices, people thinking about traveling again and rising interest rates it is starting to feel a lot like 2008 – which leads me to believe it’s time to start talking about sliding doors again.
Richelieu has a complete sliding door division with solutions for every application. We have aluminum frame doors with glass inserts, co-plainer doors and pivoting doors that can hide a complete kitchen. You might come across a client that needs one of these high end options, but the below sliding door systems will work for 85% of your customers.
Hardware For 3/4″ Doors up to 78″ High
The DAMA sliding door system is great for oversized cabinets in a garage, covering a flat screen TV in a wall unit or even building wardrobes.
All of the hardware on the door is surface mounted, recess a top and bottom track in the cabinet and you are done. Sold as a kit, and even can be used for glass doors.
Top Hung Hardware For 3/4″ Doors
How many times do you install a reach in closet behind noisy builder grade by-passing doors?
How many calls do you receive per week to change these doors?
I don’t think you should be a sliding door company – even though one does exist with multiple locations across the US. But does it make sense to offer sliding doors if you are already onsite doing the closet?
The Scorri 50 Sliding door system is a good replacement to builder grade by-passing doors. Just like the DAMA system all the hardware on the door is surface mounted and its a top hung system so you don’t have to worry about the floor being out of level.
It does require a route in the bottom edge of your door but that’s it. For $100 in hardware and a couple of sheets of melamine you can install new smooth running doors for your client.
Bottom Rolling Hardware For 3/4″ Doors
Our RO 44 Sliding Door System is a bottom rolling system for those of you working in high rises with metal headers.
The top rollers act as a guide with all of the weight being carried by surface mounted bottom rollers. The floor track can be surface mounted too, so you don’t have to worry about cutting into the homeowners floor.
I don’t believe 2023 will be as bad as 2008 but you should be prepping for some type of correction. Or at least developing a plan in the event there is a slow down.
Your turn – are you offering sliding doors to your customers?
Is it a big pain in the neck or are you successful at it?
If you have any questions about sliding door hardware, or how Richelieu can help you increase your profits please reach out to your local rep or email me at RDeMarco@Richelieu.com
Thank you for reading!
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