Almost everyone has seen or heard about a closet system that allows you to maximize the space in your bedroom but what about in your garage? RedLine offers both systems.
Their RedLine Garagegear line allows home owners to make the most out of the space in their garage. Whether you want a template design or you want something custom to fit your garage, one of their dealers can do it for you. If you want to expand the space in your closet then what you really want is the RedLine Closet System. An off shoot of their garage line, you’ll soon find that their closet products compliment your home too.
We recently spoke with Troy Greenburg of RedLine and asked him a few questions about the company and their agent programs.
Tell us a little about RedLine Garage Gear and Closet Systems.
The parent company Greenberg Casework Company, Inc. has been building casework for about on 25 years. We introduced the garage line about 5 years ago, and the closet line 2 years ago. This was a new experience for us. We were used to having an architect or owner tell us what they wanted and how they wanted it built. With Redline we were able to design our own line of cabinets that gets refined by dealer / customer feed back. It is fun.
How does it work?
We have dealers that market our product in their area, once they sell a job, they email us a file created by our software, we produce the parts, put it on a pallet and ship it. The dealer get the pallet and installs the job. Everything for the job comes on the pallet. Customer is happy. It is a pretty simple process.
What inspired you to launch this company?
Garage – We saw a niche that wasn’t being filled, a truly custom garage cabinet at a reasonable cost. The closets has a similar story, most of our competition offers a limited line of options our closet system is very flexible allowing our dealers to build almost anything they can imagine.
What separates you from the competition?
Garage – 3-5 day lead times, 400+ cabinet configurations, 10 stock powder coat colors + custom colors. Not many people know powder coating wood is even possible, but we created Redline Garagegear around powder coating because it is the perfect material for the garage environment. It is very durable, water resistant, and looks great. We didn’t take closet components and put them in a garage, we designed Redline Garage for the garage. On the closet side— Short lead times and as I mentioned above our line is deep, a lot of options. Both Redline Garagegear and Redline Closet Systems use a really nice design software along with Price Manager, our own tool built for automating the quote for the dealer and it also automates placing the order to us, and the last thing and maybe the most important, old fashioned customer service.
Tell us about your agent programs.
We have about 85 dealers in the US, Canada, and South America (adding about 3-4 per month presently) we use a dealer model so there are no franchise fees or royalties. We charge a small fee for training and samples, and there is a small monthly fee for the software lease, our goal is to get dealers out there making sales, we do not make money selling our dealers training, software, or brochures, we try to get them everything they need to be successful and in return we will be successful. Dealers have a protected area with a yearly sales goal to stay in good standings. We do not overlap dealers.
What are the requirements for each one?
Most of our dealers have a brick and mortar show room or a really decked out trailer used as a mobile showroom to visit customers or go to car shows or trade shows, some have both. None of our dealers inventory materials, one of our goals is short lead times so the dealer isn’t limited by his inventory they can design based on what the customer needs rather than design based on their inventory. A website is a must.
Any advice you’d like to offer potential agents?
Persistence — business is never easy and today business is particularly difficult. It can be done though, some of our dealers are doing well even though the economy is down.
Have you always been entrepreneurial? What lead you to where you are today?
My dad was a entrepreneur, we were brought up with that mentality, growing up we had several small businesses. When I was 10, and my sister was 14 my dad came home with a old run down concession trailer. He told us “this is it… this is how you are going to make money to go to college, buy a rental house, or start a business. Don’t come to me when you are 18 looking for money this is your opportunity. My sister and I learned a lot from that business and I consider it the best gift my parents gave me. I could go on and on about this but I won’t bore you.
Any goals you’d like to achieve in the next year or so?
We have a wood line of components we have been working on for a year or two that I am hoping to get out to our dealers by fall. It is pretty cool. With this line you can build almost anything you can imagine out of veneer and solid wood, finished or unfinished. This line is also very extensive.
What are some lessons your business has taught you?
Persistence is the key.
