A Furniture Maker's Sturdy Legs

One of my basic tenets to having a successful life is living beneath your means. I have my expensive flourishes, but my wife and I drive one car (a $12,500 Honda Civic), I buy some clothes at Sam's Clubs, get no premium cable, still have dial-up Internet access -- and you would not believe the furnishings in my living room.

Hardwood Artisans, a Woodbridge-based maker of high-end furniture, has similar values. Hardwood has zero debt. It didn't overexpand. It reinvests its profits into the business and watches costs like a hawk. The company hires lots of friends and family, so there is little turnover.

Compensation is modest; a top bonus might reach $5,000. There is no health insurance. The co-founder, Greg P. Gloor, made $150,000 at his peak, a nice living but it won't get him entree into Great Falls or a place on Foxhall Road.

When Gloor decided to sell his half interest in the high-end furniture company, he didn't hire a Wall Street investment bank to fetch the highest dollar. He sold his share of the company for $50,000 to five long-time employees, even though the share was worth $700,000 on paper. And he paid them a bonus the previous year so they could afford the purchase.

Hardwood Artisans makes nice stuff. Its Craftsman-style furniture is simple but utilitarian, characterized by smooth lines and joints that eliminate the need for nails, screws and metal braces. The products are labor intensive, requiring precise measurements and finishings. They are expensive to make. An armoire can run to $6,000 and a bed to around $8,000. Custom-made projects for homes can cost more.

Hardwood Artisans' conservative financial approach has kept it alive while competitors, such as Mastercraft and Scan, have closed.

"Nobody is out to get rich quick," said Lois Gloor, Greg's wife and a longtime employee. "We just like to do what we like doing and make it work. The last time there was a soft spot in the economy, five or six years ago, my husband and his partner didn't pay themselves. The important thing was to keep this game going."

Greg, 58, grew up in Pittsburgh in a neighborhood "where if you needed something done, you figured it out yourself."

A self-described "hippie wannabe" who dropped out of Drexel University's engineering program, Gloor started his company in a basement in Alexandria in the mid-1970s. He and partner Larry Spinks patterned their business after similar establishment in New York City.

They called it the Loft Bed Store, and it was a shoestring operation. The company grossed $30,000 the first year making loft beds, a staple in college dorms and similar to bunk beds without the bottom bed. They sold for around $400 each. Greg paid himself $35 a week and Lois waitressed to make ends meet.

Business was good. The Loft Bed Store increased revenue by 100 to 200 percent a year during their early days. It later expanded into other lines of furniture and now features hundreds of items in its catalogue. It changed its name to Hardwood Artisans 10 years ago as it morphed from its college dorm image into an upscale-custom-furniture manufacturer. Its longest continual solid seller is a pedestal platform bed with headboard and nightstand. Price: $6,000 to $9,000, depending on size and wood.

To finance operations the company asks customers to put 50 percent down for furniture, which usually takes eight to 10 weeks for Hardwood Artisans to make. The down payment -- known as a float -- allows Hardwood Artisans to operate without going to banks for short-term loans. Insurance companies and other businesses are built on "float."