It's been one year since Keith Medick joined Versatrim as president and CEO. The floor moldings manufacturer, based in Henderson, North Carolina, has made investments in the last 12 months to increase production efficiencies, launch new products and expand its sales team. We caught up with Medick at The International Surface Event in Las Vegas to learn more.
Floor Trends & Installation: Tell us about this past year.
Keith Medick: Last year was a challenging year for the industry, right? Coming off of that Covid tailwind that everybody had, we were up in the second half of '23, which even firms like Home Depot and Lowe's were reporting sales down quarter over quarter. We were actually up in the third and fourth quarter over '22. We're really proud of that.
Floor Trends & Installation: What were some of the investments you made in manufacturing and new product development?
Medick: We really wanted to take that to the next level and start to add new products and new services. One of the first things that we added were the flexible moldings. Then we added adhesive, which we worked with the supplier to especially formulate. Then we added our stair solutions. We were doing the VesaCap and VersaEdge solutions, but we had customers asking for a rounded solution. We invested three-quarters-of-a-million dollars for a new piece of equipment to be able to do the existing product, the square and also the round. That's coming in from Germany, hopefully in March. We also have new risers.
Floor Trends & Installation: You also invested in digital marketing channels?
Medick: Yes, our e-commerce website makes ordering online much easier for our customers. That was a big investment as well. So now, let's get the return on all these investments.
Floor Trends & Installation: What's your outlook for 2024?
Medick: We're hearing optimism, but it's cautious optimism. We were fortunate. Like I said, we were still up the second half of last year, so with all of of the investments that we've made and all the new products that we're offering, we never had an outside sales force before. Now we have outside salespeople. All these new products and services are great, but we had a separate sales and customer service organizations, and we've now brought those two organizations together. We've instituted a lot of investment, a lot of changes in the last year. And the thing that I'm most proud of is the team that we built.
Read past coverage: Versatrim Makes Big Moves to Accelerate Growth
