Firm model of quality, consistency

COUNTER POINT: Joe Pakuris, left, and Eddy Keegan are co-owners of Kitchen Countertop Center of New England, a custom-renovation company. They say the firm’s business has grown 20 percent each year they’ve been in business. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY
COUNTER POINT: Joe Pakuris, left, and Eddy Keegan are co-owners of Kitchen Countertop Center of New England, a custom-renovation company. They say the firm’s business has grown 20 percent each year they’ve been in business. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

Find an untapped business niche, identify and cater to your ideal client, perform exceptional work and grow slowly as your needs dictate.
Oh, and make sure you’re doing something you love.
That’s the path Joe Pakuris and Eddy Keegan, owners of Kitchen Countertop Center of New England, a custom kitchen and bathroom renovation firm in Providence, have taken to grow what could be deemed a luxury-market company 20 percent in each year they’ve been in business. And that despite opening just before an economic meltdown from which Rhode Island still is struggling to recover.
“The people we marketed to saw the value in what we were offering because nobody else could offer what we were doing,” Pakuris said.
Pakuris and Keegan met almost a decade ago while both were working as part-time salespeople at a flooring company that Pakuris did not want to name.
“Eddy and I really had the love for taking something that was not good-looking, that was run down and turning it into something beautiful. We both had real good values and had come from a company that was horrible. We [knew] we definitely could do a lot better,” Pakuris said.
Nine years ago the team decided to officially go it on their own, forming Five Star Home Improvement and focusing on flooring and other small home improvements for a couple of years before renaming the company in 2006 and turning their attention to expanding into full-scale kitchen and bath remodeling.
The move was made after, as Pakuris said, they noticed an untapped market in establishing a company that handled remodeling projects without subcontractors, which they had been doing.
They began building departments one by one, first hiring a delivery team, then a demo team, then carpenters and electricians, then plumbers and a tile crew.
They also added on designers to complement the one they began business with and grew to 40 employees.
Attracting quality employees hasn’t been an issue.
Pakuris said the goal is to keep employees as happy as customers and the company offers several retention incentives, including a profit-sharing plan, paying about 20 percent above the industry-average salary, and a full benefits package. “Of course, we’re in business to make money but we want a business that continues to grow and we want to provide a good, solid future and a good, solid platform for people to take care of their families and raise their children,” Pakuris said. “We’ve always had the philosophy that if you pay well and you take care of your [employees], you’re going to get better results.”
KCCNE eventually opened a granite-countertop division that Pakuris said today is the largest inventory of natural stone in the state.
In addition to the 15 to 20 remodeling projects the company completes each week, it also performs an average of 50 to 75 granite-countertop installs per month.
Work has only picked up since the company opened and Pakuris attributes that to his team’s ability to satisfy their target market.
Though KCCNE does do commercial remodels, the business is 80 percent residential and most customers are those of the age where their children have finished college and have the ability to spend money on home improvements.
Some clients do come in with designs in place but many utilize all KCCNE services. The average project is completed in 15 to 20 business days. Pakuris said the company currently is booked through March 2013.
Each client is given as much time and attention as they need, even if that means many, many phone calls or dismantling imperfect work and reinstalling a cabinet or flooring.
“No one else can do that,” he said. “It’s taken us the six years to every six months add a segment [to the firm’s expertise].”
The company grew “sweat equity” invested by the owners and continues to be that way, Pakuris said.
He often works seven days a week, but couldn’t imagine being happier.
“I don’t take on more than what I can handle. With that practice, your service will never go down and you’ll never have unhappy customers,” he said. “There’s nothing better than at the end of the job, going to get the final check from a customer and having them want to give that check because they’re pleased.” •

COMPANY PROFILE
Kitchen Countertop Center of New England
Owners: Joe Pakuris and Eddy Keegan
Type of Business: Custom kitchen and bathroom renovation
Location: 1120 Eddy St., Providence
EMPLOYEES: 40
Year Established: 2004
Annual Sales: WND

No posts to display