The King of Cookware

Two years later, Williams realized that he needed help running and expanding his company. A management team was brought in and in short order, branch locations opened in three upscale California communities: Beverly Hills, Palo Alto and Costa Mesa. But as the company grew to $4 million in annual sales, debt grew at a faster rate. Williams-Sonoma was in trouble. Williams saw no alternative but to sell.

"Unfortunately, the [management team] ran the company into the ground," says W. Howard Lester, the former computer software executive who purchased Williams-Sonoma in 1978 for a reported $100,000. "I talked Chuck into staying on as a buyer and adviser" -- Williams is "the best housewares merchant the world has ever seen," Lester says -- "and the rest is history."

Today, Williams-Sonoma Inc., the parent company, has evolved into a retail giant with more than 560 stores in North America as well as catalogue and Web site sales from its kitchenware stores and its Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Teen, Pottery Barn Kids, Hold Everything and West Elm divisions. The first Williams-Sonoma Home store is scheduled to open Friday in West Hollywood. For 2004, net sales reached $2.8 billion, a 16.7 percent increase over the previous year. Net earnings have tripled since 2000.

Lester, the chairman of the board, engineered the company's broad expansion into stores that sell things for every room in the house. "Left to Chuck, there would still only be one store. He never had a desire to build a brand," says Lester. He estimates that 25 percent of the company's revenue comes from its nearly 250 kitchenware stores and internet and catalogue sales. The company went public in 1983.

Williams's impact on the company he founded is still noticeable, and as his birthday approaches,tributes abound.

For decades, Williams-Sonoma is where many prospective brides and grooms have gone to register for gifts. "They have captured the wedding and gift-giving part of the business, and Chuck Williams started that. His personality is stamped there," says Kathy Tierney, chief executive of Sur La Table, a chain of 51 kitchenware stores that started in Seattle in 1972.

Victoria Matranga, design programs coordinator for the International Housewares Association, calls Williams "a pathbreaker."

"He set the stage for the success of specialty stores. And today when department stores are losing customers, it's the specialty stores that are capturing the imagination and the dollars," she says.

"He took the concept of a mom-and-pop gourmet store with individual service and transferred it to a mass concept," says Bill McLoughlin, executive editor of HomeWorld Business, a housewares trade publication. "You can go into one of their stores and talk to a salesperson about the difference between an anodized aluminum and a stainless steel pan. You can't do that at, say, a Wal-Mart."

Last month, the 20-millionth Williams-Sonoma cookbook was shipped. Since 1992, with San Francisco publisher Weldon Owen, 174 titles have carried the Williams-Sonoma name, including international cookbooks and guides for entertaining as well as children's cookbooks. Chuck Williams is the executive editor of every one.

Soon, after a round of birthday parties, Williams plans to be back at his desk editing a new series of cookbooks -- the "mastering" series covering, in order, grilling, vegetables and frozen desserts, for release in the spring. Ever the salesman, he says he tries to personally answer letters from customers. And when a new store opens, he is there to cheer on the sales team.