doing business as
Bellmont Cabinets
Rather than shutting its doors when demand collapsed during the Great Recession , family-owned Bellmont Cabinets forged a new path .
Steve Bell , president and CEO headquarters : Sumner products : Residential kitchen and bath cabinets for remodels and the new , single-family home market .
a family story : Steve Bell was building homes with his father-in-law in the late 1970s and , to make extra money , started making cabinets for those homes in his garage . He started his own company that now includes two of his sons , Casey ( chief operating officer ) and Tyler ( vice president of sales and marketing ).
changing the world : To live out one of the company ’ s core values , compassion , Bellmont seeks to help those in need , from its own employees and neighbors to people around the world . Its Bellmont Family Support program helps employees enduring hard times . It works with many local programs , like homeless support at Vine Maple Place in Maple Valley and home construction with Habitat for Humanity . Internationally it works with communities in El Salvador , Africa and Latvia .
ups and downs : In 2008 , the company was having its best year ever , with employment reaching more than 200 . That fall , however , the recession took hold and sales dropped by 60 percent . They cut employment by 110 people but were making only 100 cabinets a day — not enough volume to pay overhead costs on their production facility . “ We could not just hunker down and hang on and ride it out ,” Casey Bell said . “ It literally wasn ’ t an option . We had to grow out of it .” Desperate to simply bring cash through the door to keep the lights on , they gambled everything on a new product line called the 1600 Series that had the same features and benefits of the company ’ s higher-end cabinets , but at a lower cost . It was a huge hit . Bellmont is now up to 300 employees with their product carried in 550 Lowe ’ s stores across the nation .
how ’ s business ? Bellmont has been growing so rapidly that in 2015 they actually turned down business to focus on better management . Coming out of a recession , it was a hard decision to say no to sales , but now a sustainable 20 percent growth rate allows them to run a tighter , better company . “ There ’ s a balance here ,” Casey Bell said . “ You can ’ t try to do everything and be mediocre at everything .”
Casey Bell , chief operations officer ( left ), and Nick Johnson , chief financial officer
— Brian Mittge
46 association of washington business