Founded in March 11th, 1981
Where does that peculiar name come from? Well for starters, at the time we applied to register our company name, we were informed that all of our choices were ineligible. Therefore, the four founding partners Harald and Erika Lincke and Tom and Connie Shorter decide that an acronym would have to do the job.
The company was started in a rented warehouse in Langley, BC Canada with a bank loan and a lot of determination and ambition. A handful of dealers immediately sign up, as they were not happy with their big local manufacturer and like the fact that Hertco is willing to do what it takes to make the customer happy. Our first generation product is a dadoed particle board cabinet with a paper print base finish. Initial door styles are limited to Laminate and Oak selections.
1986
After purchasing property in Delta, BC in a new business park and building a new 25,000 sqft building, Hertco is first on the market with a painted MDF 5-piece door. Our main market is British Columbia, Alberta and the Yukon. We are approached by a large American manufacturer to become their exclusive supplier of frameless cabinets.
1989
With the market in the United States growing rapidly, Hertco builds another 25,000 sqft building next door to accommodate the accelerating demands for product from the dealer network. Hertco's new factory produces an all doweled cabinet, with very flexible CNC machinery. Customers are delighted.
1994
After 5 years of good business, several events lead to the decision that would change the company forever: Harald and Erika retire, and a new company is formed in the United States, Hertco Kitchens LLC. The management team consists of Sven Lincke, Sales and Marketing, Doug Blaschuk, Purchasing and Accounting and Xuong Dich, Production, as well as a dozen other longtime employees. We are ready to build a new company!
1997
A new factory is built in Ferndale, Washington, USA. The 50,000 sqft building is fully equipped with the most modern woodworking machinery. We specialize in the production of customized cabinetry which is becoming ever more popular with the remodelers and custom home builders.
2005
We completed a 12,000 sq. ft. addition to our Ferndale factory, gaining more space for manufacturing flexibility and providing a home to a 2,500 sq. ft. "dealer only" factory resource center, displaying our newest and most progressive products.
2006
We completed the construction of a new cabinet assembly and distribution facility in Oahu, Hawaii, following the purchase of our largest dealer-distributor in Hawaii. This facility is also home to a "dealer only" resource center, displaying both our Hertco product line as well as our "quick ship" (1-3 days!) Total Access cabinet line. Our ability to service the Hawaiian and South Pacific market with a broad range of products is now greatly enhanced.
2007
Our dealer network has grown to approximately 250 dealers throughout the Pacific Rim, including the states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, as well as our original grass roots in British Columbia and Alberta, Canada. Some of our original dealers and employees have now been with us for 26 years.
2007 is proving to be a strong year of sales and growth with greater demand for the wide range of our product lines, and the respect from our dealers for our dependability.
Our strengths continue to be based on the knowledge and length of service of our employees, the transparency of our product pricing, and overall product quality, and our customization capability.
Our focus remains in delighting our customers by maintaining stability in our pricing, our production and delivery schedules.
Change in our product is as a result of our open communication and reception of new ideas, from our dealers and our sales representatives. Indicative of the company's innovative engineering, many of today's custom cabinets are incorporated into tomorrow's standard offering.
2008
In April we opened our Alaska factory in central Anchorage. It has a local name, Kodiak Cabinets, and is optimized for a capacity of about 200 cabinets per day. This facility expands on our strategy of “putting the factory where the customer is” and in a time of rapidly increasing energy and transportation costs the idea of doing the final assembly only a few miles from where the product is actually needed is proving to be closer to economic reality. Catalogs, brochures, websites and very importantly, our in house 20-20 cabinet design software specialist now support all branches and product lines comprehensively. We now write, modify and maintain all aspects of our electronic catalogs and can provide industry leading support and advice to our network of dealers using this software product.
Several of our most senior staff members are nearing their 20th anniversaries of service to the company, providing our customers with an almost unheard of depth in product, design and market knowledge. Many of our customers tell us that the low risk of placing their orders with us, as well as the virtually flawless delivery of well built and attractive looking products make it easy for them to delight their own clients.
