|
D&WC: Please give a detailed
description of your company and its history.
Alan Gitkin: Gulfcoast International
Products, Inc. is a manufacturer and importer of faux wood shutters and
allied products. The company was founded in 1998 and is owned and actively
managed by my wife, Cynthia, and me. We've spent a lifetime in the
window treatments industry. I worked for Jencraft Corp. for 20 years in
various executive capacities and later became president and CEO of National
Forest Products, which owned Flair-Fold and Kaywood Shutter companies.
Initially, Gulfcoast International was founded as an importer of ready-made
faux wood shutters. In 2001, we built a factory in the United States to
augment our ready-made sizes and to manufacture custom faux wood shutters.
With the opening of our custom factory, we introduced Slimline™,
the custom shutter that fits the customer's window and budget.
Cynthia and I manage the company from the executive office and factory
in Naples, FL. We also maintain our national ready-made distribution center
in Brentwood, NY.
D&WC: Who are your customers?
What parts of the country do you service?
Gitkin: Our marketplace is nationwide.
We can ship as small an order as one shutter set to any location in the
continental United States within three days of receipt of order. We try
to serve a very wide range of customers spanning the entire gamut of retail
stores, catalog companies, decorators and small dealers.
We service our customers through manufacturer's sales reps and retail
store service companies, and we're always looking for good sales
reps in markets and segments of the industry that we do not serve.
D&WC: What best describes your
niche in the marketplace?
Gitkin: Certainly, our major niche
is ready-made shutters and, in particular, faux wood as a raw material.
When we introduced faux wood into the ready-made shutter category, it
represented a dramatic change to that segment of the industry. Almost
instantly the selling prices dropped and quality skyrocketed. That's
a potential formula for a home run. We moved manufacturing from the United
States to Asia and were, of course, able to take advantage of the efficiencies
of their labor costs.
Faux wood as a raw material has proven to be incredibly better than wood.
Over the last 30 years, we were never really able to overcome the disadvantages
of ready-made pine shutters. Over time they warped, yellowed and the staples
always fell out. With faux wood we've had none of those problems.
Our defective and customer return rate dropped a whopping 17 points from
20 percent to under three percent. We like to say that we're not
only selling shutters, but they're staying in the consumers'
homes. One of our major customers said its best: “Faux wood is really
better than wood.”
Another major niche is our line of 1 1/4-inch traditional louver shutters.
We really specialize in the category and at prices that are equivalent
to those of 20 years ago.
|
|
|
GULFCOAST INTERNATIONAL PRODUCTS, INC.
|
|
5400 Jaeger Rd.
Naples, FL 34109
(941) 514-1621
Fax: (941) 514-1623
E-mail: sales@gulfcoastintl.com
|
D&WC: What are your strengths in the marketplace?
Gitkin: We stock more than 110 SKUs
of ready-made shutters in our distribution center, and we ship to our
customers or directly to their consumer's home within three days
of receipt of orders. And, over the past four years, we're proud
to have shipped within that three-day time period with a 99 percent fill
rate.
But no matter how many ready-made sizes you carry, you could never cover
every window size requirement. Our real strength as a company is our ability
to augment our ready-made sizes with custom shutters shipped within 10
days from receipt of order. This gives the consumer the ability to purchase,
for example, shutters for four out of their five windows through our ready-made
sizes and then utilize our custom program for that one odd size window.
The consumer gets the advantage of the lower pricing of stock shutters
and our customers don't lose the sale because we couldn't cover
that last window.
D&WC: What are some of the key
factors involved in your growth and success?
Gitkin: To be successful in today's
incredibly competitive marketplace you certainly need the right products,
the right pricing and the best quality levels along with super performance.
Those factors are givens. But, in addition to all of those things, we
believe our key to success is based on people and customer service. As
an example, Andy Gonzalez, our vice president of customer service, has
spent 30 years in our segment of the industry. When he talks to our customers,
he brings an instant credibility to the conversation. We're more
than willing to spend 30 minutes on the telephone with a consumer discussing
his or her particular window requirements. In 2002, that's the kind
of service you have to offer in order to be successful. Having the right
products and pricing is not enough by a long shot.
D&WC: Do you offer any products
other than window coverings?
Gitkin: Yes, we do. We've leveraged
our management's experience in the home improvement and home decorating
markets along with the success of faux wood. We're now successfully
selling a line of faux wood bi-fold doors. This spring, we'll introduce
an exciting line of faux wood floor screens and room dividers.
|
