Specialty dealer touts experience

Home Channel News, Jan 25, 1999 by Kate Griffin

Crest Lighting Studios and Evergreen Oak Electric battle big boxes with what they do best

In the face of increased competition from big-box stores. Crest Lighting Studios and Evergreen Oak Electric a regional dealer with five specialty lighting showrooms selling fixtures and electrical supplies - is blowing its own horn on a more regular basis and expanding its presence in the Chicago metropolitan area.

"The competition from the Home Depots and Menards of the world has upped the ante," said Barton Kramer, the company's president since 1996. Since they carry some of the same products that we do, we've had to reinvent ourselves by emphasizing our experience and knowledge."

The company -- consisting of Crest lighting showrooms and the Evergreen Oak electrical supply division -- last October opened its fifth location in New Lenox, Ill., adding to four other outlets in Orland Park, Lisle, Chicago and Crestwood, Kramer attributes his company's expansion in part to business growth and residential activity in Chicago's southwest suburbs.

The company's five locations include four lighting showrooms targeting consumers and designers and four electrical supply outlets selling primarily to professionals.

The expansion came after several years of 5 percent to 6 percent annual sales gains by the company, which generated approximately $45 million in revenue last year. Of that revenue, about 25 percent came from the lighting showrooms, with the wholesale electrical division making up the remainder.

"Before, people who want our type of products knew who we were, but now the information sources are flooded," said Kramer, pointing to the onslaught of competitor-generated mail-order catalogs, along with radio and television ads. As a result, Kramer's business, which began in 1964 as an electrical wholesaler and then expanded into retail, now runs advertisements on cable television and posts billboards on Interstate 80 leading in and, out of Chicago. As for reaching electrical professionals, Kramer said, "We're doing a lot more direct-selling, with an outside sales force of 14 individuals making face-to-face contact calls."

For Jeff Wonsetler, one of two assistant managers at Crest's northside Chicago showroom -- a 2,400-square foot space renovated from a former car dealership built in the 1920s -- the challenge .is selling to diverse customer groups.

"The fun part about the neighborhood is there is no average customer," Wonsetler said. "It could be a designer, a contractor or an architect. You could go one minute from an old lady wanting a couple of light bulbs to someone doing a skyscraper condo."

The showroom, which stocks 1,500 skus from 120 to 150 suppliers, including decorative and landscape lighting and ceiling fans, has in recent years added accent furniture. Mirrors, vases, framed pictures and the occasional table augment the showroom's primary product.

The showroom is also a resource for the film industry, which rents fixtures as props. Those making the sets for a recent action film starring Bruce Willis opted to buy rather than rent the fixtures they wanted, said Wonsetler, "because they were going to blow them up."