Manufacturing Today - Summer 2010 - (Page 116)
Legends Furniture Inc.
www.buylegends.com / HQ: Tolleson, Ariz. / Employees: 200 / Services: Wholesale furniture Rick Schmidgall, owner: “We earned our way there every time.”
Simple Strategies
legends furniture began small but has blossomed into a national operation. by karen wagner
legends furniture builds furniture for domestic and international customers.
Rick Schmidgall is not your average successful businessman. He doesn’t have a business degree. He would rather be down on the production floor than up in his office. He doesn’t believe in over-thinking the future. For example, he doesn’t believe in long-term business plans, and he doesn’t project annual sales. In fact, if you had asked Schmidgall back in 1990 when he began manufacturing furniture in an 800-squarefoot space whether he believed that some day he would have a 133,000square-foot manufacturing facility and four warehouses, he probably would have said no. 116
manufacturing-today.com SUMMER 2010
But today, Legends Furniture of Tolleson, Ariz., employs a staff of 200, counts retailers from around the country as customers and is celebrating its 20th anniversary.
Cost, Quality, Delivery
Schmidgall credits his company’s success over the last two decades to a no-nonsense, common-sense approach. “We just did business the right way,” he says. “If we said we were going to do something, we did it.” This approach is reflected in his mantra: Cost, quality, delivery. “You’re overpriced, your quality is not very good, or you can’t ship on time – they’re
not going to buy from you,” Schmidgall says. “You only need to miss one of those three things and you’re out. The uncertainty in any business kills, and I think we’re very good at trying to eliminate [it].” Legends Furniture manufactures mid-line home entertainment, home office and bedroom furniture out of the plant in Arizona and imports a second furniture line from China and Malaysia. Business is split about evenly between the domestic and imported lines. Schmidgall believes that the company’s relationship with its dealers should be like a partnership. Both
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Manufacturing Today - Summer 2010
Manufacturing Today - Summer 2010
Contents
Washington
Global Strategies
Continuous Improvement
Smart Pricing
Supply Chain
Business Value
Moving Forward
Westmark Products
Byrne Dairy
Ultrafryer Systems Inc.
Wil-Rich LLC & Wishek MFG LLC
American Precision Fabricators
Aqua Products Inc.
Bennington
Black Diamond Equipment
Columbian Home Products
Control Devices LLC
Endustra Filter Manufacturers Inc
Heil Trailer International
Assembled Products
Order-Matic Corp.
Professional Building Systems Inc.
Smart Start Inc
Bosal International
Ausco Products Inc.
Brodart Company
Cambrex Corp.
Chapin International Inc.
Cleveland Gear Co.
Consolidated Precision Products
Control Flow Inc.
Douglas Autotech Corp.
Fetzer Architectural Products
The FNA Group
Fourslide Spring and Stamping Inc.
G.A. West & Company
Great Lakes Power Group
Grimm Brothers Plastics
Legends Furniture Inc.
National Tube Supply Co.
Optex Systems Inc.
Sunburst Electronics
V.E. Enterprises Inc
W. Soule & Company
Manufacturing Tomorrow
Manufacturing Today - Summer 2010
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