General overview of the market for the manufacture of sliding wardrobes
Currently, one of the most popular pieces of furniture are sliding wardrobes with a sliding door system.
They come in a variety of types and configurations: built-in to any niche in the apartment (house), in fact, are a set of doors in the opening - the filling (shelves, pipes for hangers, pantographs, hooks, etc.) is attached directly to the walls ; built-in attached to the corner have only one "real" side wall, and built-attached to a flat wall - two; A variant of a freestanding wardrobe has a rear raised panel (wall) made of fiberboard (MDF). The height distinguishes cabinets with an upper horizon (below the height of the room) and without it (where the upper track of the sliding system is attached directly to the plane of the ceiling).
With all the variety of sliding wardrobes themselves, there are usually no special frills in the design of doors. This situation is quite paradoxical - after all, the door is the only element of the wardrobe that can be decorated, and, at the same time, the most expensive.
By and large, the cost of a wardrobe on order is determined by the cost of the door. But in most modern companies, the maximum that a customer can wish for is a composite door of two or three elements, for example, with an insert of a mirror or (less often) frosted glass, it happens that it is processed by a sandblasting machine.
This happens because the consumer is not always aware of the possibilities of decorating doors - so to speak, of a person, a wardrobe. And these possibilities are almost endless: different options for combined (for example, glass-mirror-chipboard) doors; doors decorated with leather, artificial leather, natural (veneered) wood, fabric, oilcloths, photo wallpaper, plexiglass, bamboo, rattan, fiberboard (LDL) with curly slots (which are sometimes used to give a more aesthetic appearance to steam heating batteries), painted in different colors (or even with a printed pattern) MDF and many others.
Typically, firms engaged in the manufacture of custom-made sliding wardrobes offer two or three primitive door design options, and the customer willingly chooses one of them. This makes the business of manufacturing decorative doors for wardrobes (as well as similar interior doors or indoor sliding partitions using the same system of tracks and skids) a very profitable business.
Premises, personnel and equipment for the manufacture of doors for wardrobes
The number of employees and the area of production facilities directly depends on the volume of production. The minimum number will be 2-3 people plus a measurer with a personal car, the functions of which, however, can initially be performed by a novice entrepreneur himself.
For the normal work of each member of the team, an area of at least 8-10 square meters per person is needed, part of which will occupy a wide passage and an assembly table.
In addition, a specially designated place (about 30 square meters) should be allocated for a format-cutting machine (costing about 200-250 thousand rubles).
In addition to the mentioned machine, it is necessary to stock up with a face saw (10-15 thousand rubles), designed for cutting aluminum profiles.
Each worker must be equipped with his own screwdriver (3-8 thousand rubles), not including a set of small hand tools: a set of hexagons, screwdrivers, a hammer (mallet), a stapler (stapler), etc., for a total cost of up to 2 thousand roubles.
Each assembly table should be covered with a dense cloth like cloth to avoid damage (scratching) of the workpieces. Regarding the room as a whole, it should be a dry and necessarily heated workshop - many elements of decorative doors are glued, and glue does not “catch” well at low temperatures, and even more so at high humidity.
Since the work in the room will be carried out with wood, chipboard (chipboard), fiberboard (MDF), MDF boards, plywood and other wood-based materials, it must be equipped with a fire shield in accordance with local fire safety requirements. In addition, gas cannot be used for space heating (unless the steam boiler with a gas burner is in a separate room).
Regarding the staff, it can be said that it is not at all necessary to immediately recruit experienced furniture masters-facades to the staff.
It is simply not economically feasible: the work of this master alone is 15-20% of the total volume of work performed (dimensioning and final adjustment of door elements, installation and adjustment, assembly quality control).
The rest of the work (cutting material, preparing materials and elements, initial collection of doors, etc.) will easily be performed by auxiliary non-professional workers.
The optimal ratio in this case will be 3: 1, i.e. 3 specialists should be accounted for one specialist.
The scheme of work on the manufacture of doors for wardrobes
The customer acquires a sliding wardrobe of the appropriate size and completeness, not equipped with doors. Turning to your company, he calls the measurer. The arrived measurer takes the necessary measurements and calculates the size of the required doors.
Together with the customer, they discuss the possible filling of doors (in this case, it is necessary to provide the customer with the most complete information: catalogs, booklets, etc.; talk about the timing of production and prices for a particular material; if necessary, advise any option based on wishes and the financial component of the issue) and come to some optimal solution.
After signing the contract for the provision of services, the customer pays up to 50% of the prepayment (of course, when the business reaches a certain level, you can do without it) according to the estimated price. In this case, there is one caveat: the measurer, of course, cannot accurately determine the price of the ordered door.
Therefore, it is important to name the figure closest to it. Usually, when voicing the cost of work, the measurer is laid down by about 10-15% in the direction of its increase: in this case, it is better to take an advance payment a little more (based on the “pessimistic” price), but if the actual costs incurred will be lower than expected, with the final calculation the customer will give a slightly lower surcharge, which can always be positioned as a kind of "discount".
Such a scheme will improve the reputation of your company, which everyone will say that it provides real discounts. If the measurer was not mistaken, and the actual expenses turned out to be “theoretical”, then the surcharge will be at the level initially expected by the customer - which means that in this case no one is losing anything: after all, immediately indicating the exact price is considered a good form.
Regarding the timing of the manufacture of doors for wardrobes, they should be the most minimal. In principle, the assembly of an ordinary, not decorated, door is no more than an hour. Decorated doors are a bit more complicated: it all depends on the presence or absence of the required material from the warehouse (or from suppliers). Of course, sometimes there are times when the customer provides the material he likes and acquired in advance.
In addition, some materials require additional processing (for example, leather - pre-stretching and leveling; paint - drying, and often pre-priming; almost all adhesive elements - fixing and fixing, etc.), and some - the actual manufacture ( Photowall-paper from photos of the customer; some types of fabrics, etc.). But, be that as it may, the fast execution of the order will only contribute to both high profits and a positive reputation of the company.
So, after the manufacture, installation and adjustment of the doors for the wardrobe, the final settlement takes place between the customer and the company.
Prospects for the development of the business of manufacturing doors for wardrobes
The most obvious prospect is the manufacture of custom sliding wardrobes. On the one hand, this is true, since it is optimal to concentrate the entire “chain” of production in one’s hands, but on the other hand, one should know that such production becomes most advantageous if a complete set of equipment is available. And this means that you will also have to purchase an edge banding machine (about 220-450 thousand rubles), and also significantly expand both the production area and the number of personnel.
In principle, the costs are not too high, and the benefits are quite significant. So it all depends on your desire to expand and financial capabilities.
Pavel Biryukov
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