Best Practices: W.C. Carpenter – June 2024

By Jessica Chevalier

W. Cecil Carpenter opened W.C. Carpenter in 1968 as a wholesale distributor of carpet, selling broadloom to furniture stores in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Today, W.C. Carpenter defines itself, first and foremost, as a service-provider, offering flooring and installation, painting, wallpaper, small-job contracting and, within reason, whatever services will position it as a single-source point of contact for its customers. The company is a Virginia Class-A Contractor, serving both residential and commercial customers.

W. Cecil’s business is currently run by his daughter Kaddy and her son Cecil, who enjoy the challenge that taking on different types of jobs brings as well as their ability to go above-and-beyond for W.C. Carpenter clients.

ALWAYS EVOLVING
Early in the business’ life, W. Cecil focused on sales and rented out a portion of W.C. Carpenter’s warehouse to an installation company. The arrangement worked out well until W. Cecil heard through the grapevine that the installation firm was selling carpet under the table. At that time, W. Cecil decided to establish his own installation crew.

Kaddy was born and raised in the business. “Dad would have us in there labeling samples at a young age,” Kaddy says of herself and her sisters. As she grew older, Kaddy worked in the store during summer breaks from school.

After graduating from college with a business degree from Virginia Wesleyan, Kaddy was hired at a bank with her sights set on being a stockbroker.

“I told my dad, ‘I don’t want to be a secretary my whole life. I want to make money.’ He said, ‘Well, if you want to make money, you need to come work for me and sell,’” recalls Kaddy, who took her father up on his offer. To this day, she’s never held another job.

In 1989, W. Cecil named Kaddy president when she was only 26 years old and then he retired to Florida. Kaddy enlisted the full-time help of her sister Jane Rinaca, who had been working part time in the business. W. Cecil passed away in January 1991.

“We had a very hard road,” Kaddy recalls. “When our father died, we were left out of the phone book, a recession had started and we lost our largest account.”

During the prior years, W.C. Carpenter had pivoted to focus on selling carpet to hotels in its home-base resort city of Virginia Beach. “All the hotels were privately owned then, and my parents knew most of the owners,” explains Kaddy. However, that business began to dry up as local hotels were bought up by brands.

With that, W.C. Carpenter again diversified its market focus to custom homebuilder work, which was “great for many years,” says Kaddy. Eventually, more flooring purveyors entered that space, and it became highly competitive, so W.C. Carpenter once again pivoted, this time to commercial work, partnering with general contractors, property managers and end users for restaurant, church and retirement facility work.

Looking back, Kaddy laughs at some of her early adventures in the business, like trying to convince her father that the business needed a fax machine, which he was vehemently opposed to purchasing. “When we got it, I called him and said, ‘This machine just saved me a tank of gas.’” With her son, Cecil, now serving in the business as vice president of sales, Kaddy sees things coming full circle with Cecil now helping her bring the business into its next generation.

Kaddy’s sister, Jane, retired from W.C. Carpenter about the time Cecil came on board.

CHASING BUSINESS
As W.C. Carpenter has followed work across the commercial segments, so has it followed flooring needs, as well. Kaddy says, “When we started doing custom homes, I went to measure a home. The builder said, ‘I have a wood guy coming to do the downstairs floors, so I just need you to measure upstairs.’” That propelled the company into the hardwood business.

In addition, commercial demand led the company into offering ceramic for bathroom and lobbies spaces, and, responding to demand, the company is now dabbling in poured floors, as well.

Cecil, vice president of sales and one of Floor Focus’ Emerging Leaders for 2024, “has expanded the biz tremendously,” says Kaddy. “He is doing what my dad wanted me to do, going out on the golf course and growing the business through relationships.”

And Cecil, like Kaddy, isn’t afraid to tackle new challenges in the name of supporting a customer. Relationships Cecil has developed with property managers led to company to offer painting services, in an effort to make apartment turns simpler.

Around six or seven years ago, Kaddy made the decision to pull back from general contractor work. “That really propelled us to the next level,” she says. “We were spending so much time on their jobs, and they were such low margins. They were headaches to install and demanded large retainers; it wasn’t worth it.”

The company serves both its commercial and residential business from the same large showroom.

ABOVE AND BEYOND
W.C. Carpenter’s slogan is “Large enough to handle any job, small enough where every customer matters.” The company has never missed a deadline and is truly willing to do whatever it can to get projects done right and on time.

Kaddy recalls, with a laugh, being called on a Friday afternoon and asked whether it would be possible to have new carpet installed in a conference center by the following day, when a wedding was set to take place.

Kaddy said that if she could get the carpet, W.C. Carpenter would get it done. Sure enough, Lees, located five hours away in Glasgow, Virginia, could match the carpet but was set to close at 5:00 p.m. Kaddy made arrangements for Lees to stay after hours for the pick-up and sent her employee off, instructing him to make sure the carpet was exactly like the sample she sent with him. He picked up the carpet and was back on the road at 7:00 p.m. While he was driving, Kaddy called in family and friends to remove the old carpet, and the installers set out to install the new product at midnight, wrapping up the job at 8:00 a.m.

Another time, W.C. Carpenter was awarded a $200,000 job at a retirement facility clubhouse. The job was delayed, and Kaddy called to ask what the holdup was. The facility reported that it needed a total facelift, including new furniture, lighting and accessories for the space. Kaddy said W.C. Carpenter could take care of the entire job and expanded that $200,000 order to a $750,000 one.

Copyright 2024 Floor Focus 

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