Garages go from grunge...to glamorous

No longer merely a place to park a car, the garage is considered by many to be the final frontier in the multi-billion dollar home remodeling market.

By Karen M. Koenig

The days of grungy, cement-floored garages are becoming a thing of the past. New cabinet and wall storage systems, flooring options and other accessories specifically designed for the garage are hitting the home remodeling market and becoming a multi-billion dollar business.

 

The Complete Garage sells a wide assortment of storage accessories, including StoreWALL wall panels. In addition to its showrooms, the company promotes its wares at home and garden shows and via its Web site, www.completegarage.com.

A recent proprietary study finds garages account for "the biggest organizational headache" in the home, ahead of closets, basements and kitchens, says Doug Arndt, co-owner of The Complete Garage, a multi-million dollar company serving garage storage needs in the residential market. The study also ranks garages above kitchens, pantries, workshops, home offices and basements with regard to spending priority. This is substantiated by recent figures from the National Association of Home Builders, which forecast Americans will spend $2.5 billion to remodel their garages in the coming year.

"Homeowners today want to make the garage part of the house," Arndt says. "They're extending the decorating theme from the house into the garage."NASCAR, golf and gardening are just some of the popular decorating themes used in garages. Other trendy ideas include converting the garage into a trophy room or modified home office.

"More and more, people are saying, 'This is a part of my house - someplace I can throw parties or entertain," adds Susan Arndt, co-owner/marketing and operations manager.

The Complete Garage is the brainchild of Doug Arndt, who developed the idea in 2000 as an extension of his industrial flooring business. "I had a customer come in who was trying to improve his home and make the garage more 'part of the house.' I realized that this was a niche that was not being addressed," he says.

In 2002, Tom Holm, a self-taught cabinetmaker, joined the business, adding a new dimension to the offerings. Although the company does not build its own products, it will design, measure and install all the products it sells.

These services are key, co-owner Holm says. Variations in garage sizes, garage door rails, electrical wiring, cement foundation walls, sloping floors and size of the vehicle make revamping a garage truly a custom project.

Even the cabinetry is customized. "Their basic structure is like those cabinets found in the kitchen, but maybe with deeper shelves or other types of customization," Holm says. The standard turnaround time on custom cabinets is seven to ten days.

The Complete Garage contracts with local custom woodworkers to offer wood cabinets in both face-frame and frameless styles. Customer preference is typically for birch or maple, Holm says, although other species, such as oak and cherry, are also available. Currently, wood cabinets account for 20 percent of sales, with laminate and KADAN powder-coated cabinets at 50 percent. These are available in a frameless style only, in an array of colors. The remaining 30 percent of cabinet sales are from the Whirlpool Gladiator GarageWorks metal line.

"We wanted to have a broad array of products for every taste, from the standard laminate cabinets to the Gladiator line and true wood frame cabinets," Arndt says.

"You'll find there are regional preferences in terms of (cabinet) colors," Susan Arndt adds. "We're seeing a lot of gray being sold throughout Minnesota, while the Milwaukee, WI, and Charlotte, NC, area stores are selling a lot of the wood so far."

Inside the showroom

 

The setup of the showrooms is to the individual franchisee's discretion, but the type of products displayed is kept consistent.

In addition to the custom wood and laminated cabinets, The Complete Garage sells StoreWALL storage systems, Whirlpool Gladiator GarageWorks cabinetry and appliances, Racedeck tile flooring, KADAN modular storage cabinets, Hot Dawg heaters, Harken hoists, Zymol car care products and more. Products are sold through catalogs, its Web site, the corporate-owned showroom and seven franchises located in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, North Carolina and New Zealand, with another two opening January in Florida and Arizona. (See 'Developing a franchise' below.)

The showrooms average 1,800 square feet in size, with some of the newer ones extending to 2,000 or more square feet of space. Although showrooms may vary in layout due to their size and configuration, "they all keep to the traditional retail idea of creating a path through the store, allowing people to be able to look and see the different options and products available - the potential for what their own garage can be," Susan Arndt says.

"In a nutshell, our goal is to make people see the garage as a usable room and not just a place to park cars," adds Doug Arndt.

"Once people catch on to that idea - the rest is easy," Holm says.

Sales in the showroom are evenly distributed between cabinetry, storage, accessories and flooring. "We try to keep them balanced, but we want to make sure they're all growing," Arndt says.

"When we started the business, we decided to create a strong brand and bring in [a variety of] quality products as opposed to hanging our hat on just one product," he adds.

"We didn't want to get locked into just one brand," Holm adds. "We've become a 'best of breed' reseller so we can adapt to the changes in the market."

 

Developing a franchise
When owners Doug Arndt and Tom Holm decided to expand The Complete Garage, they had two choices: keep the showrooms corporately owned or sell franchises.

"Early on, we knew we wanted multiple locations," Arndt says. They chose to franchise the name, he adds, "because then it becomes a very personal business - we look at the franchisees as partners, and the [franchise] owners share a passion for what we're doing because they now have a vested interest."

 

In general, franchisees are limited to one showroom per million population in order to minimize competition; an area development franchise agreement allows for the opening of one store for every 500,000 to 1 million in population. In addition to the corporate-owned original showroom in Hopkins, MN, seven franchises currently license The Complete Garage brand name, with an additional two more scheduled to open in January. Locations include: Maplewood, Eagan and Rochester, MN; Brookfield, WI; Johnston (Des Moines), IA; Cornelius (Charlotte), NC; and Auckland, New Zealand. In January, showrooms will open in Clearwater, FL, and Scottsdale, AZ.

 

The initial investment to open a Complete Garage store is estimated between $156,000 and $211,000. This includes the cost to franchise The Complete Garage ($35,000) brand name, the purchase of inventory, equipment, furniture and fixtures, delivery vehicle, signage, property and training.

 

There are multiple benefits to becoming a franchise owner, Arndt says. These include group purchasing power, computer software and hardware maintenance, and brand and marketing support. "We've also developed business through our catalogs and Web site (www.completegarage.com), which we distribute to the regional franchises," Arndt says.

 

While corporate is in charge of national advertising, the franchises are responsible for local promotions. However, Arndt says, the ads must adhere to corporate standards "and stay within the brand we're enforcing."

 

"What's different with us is that we're working with a business model that has extremely strong brand support. That, combined with the marketing and computer support we offer, allows the franchises to focus on going out there and selling," says Susan Arndt, co-owner/marketing and operations manager.

 

The corporate office of The Complete Garage is responsible for the setup, update and maintenance of the computer programs for the retail and service sectors of the individual franchises. "We provide the franchises with the complete computer setup, including all the programs," Holm says. "The systems are automatically backed up each night to an external hard drive and a copy is sent to an off-site server. I can do the [new product line] updates and maintenance from a remote location at night, so there is no interruption in their business.

 

"This is an added benefit because it becomes one less thing for the franchisees to worry about and lets them focus on what they do best - selling and running their businesses," Holm adds.

 

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