June 25, 2025 • 28 mins
Cabby Lolmaugh was appointed President, Chief Executive Officer in January 2019. After serving four year years in the U.S. Marine Corps., Mr. Lolmaugh joined our company in 2001, working in the warehouse of our Roseville, Minnesota store. From that time through 2014, he served in various roles at several locations, including Store Manager in Roseville, one of the company’s largest and most successful stores. In 2014, Mr. Lolmaugh was asked to lead the company’s pro customer strategy. Under his leadership, the company developed various programs focused on training, product assortment, merchandising and marketing to increase the level of service to the pro customer. In 2016, he became our organization’s first Director of Talent Development, and was responsible for creating and implementing a comprehensive new sales associate and store manager training program throughout the Company. This work included launching new training, development and compensation programs for new sales associates and senior assistant store managers, which became the foundation of our talent development strategy. In 2017, Mr. Lolmaugh was promoted to Vice President of Retail Stores West; responsible for the leadership and management of approximately half of our stores. In February 2018, he was promoted to Senior Vice President, Chief Operating Officer.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's another CEOs you should know. I'm Adam West and
with me today from the Tile shop, cab Loma.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Welcome, thank you, glad to be here, big fan of tile.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Do you have a lot of tile in your house?
I do, yes, of course. It's amazing when you can
what tile is now and how many different plays like
stuff that doesn't even look like tile is tyle.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Absolutely, you're seeing the trends change immensely over the last
five ten years. Everyone knew small tile when I started
a big tile with a twelve by twelve yeah, and
now we sell tile that's two foot by four foot
and there's ten foot tiles out there, so it's the
trend is getting bigger for sure.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Who gets to carry those in right, Yeah?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
The contractors and the forklifts.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
So you guys just deal with contractors pretty much, and
then the customers come in a pick or do you
deal with di I wires as well.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
That's what makes us very unique. We sell directly to
the retail consumer, and we also have a program like
a distributor would for the contractors, so we're unicorn in
the industry.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Okay, you your logo is very recognizable because it's got
tile or it looks like Tie was in it. You
guys have been around for like four decades.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yeah, we're celebrating our fortieth year anniversary this year. So
it's Bob Rutger, the founder. Started nineteen eighty five in Rochester, Minnesota.
Shortly thereafter moved to Bloomington, and that's store number two,
so it's still open today. That's our second ever store.
I started in Roseville at store number four back in
two thousand and one.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Yeah, well I'm from that area. Where's the where's that one?
Speaker 2 (01:25):
It's on the corner of County Road Sea and Fairview
A review.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
That's what I thought. Okay, so you started in two
thousand and one, you're now CEO. What are some lessons
that you've learned in that time.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
It's a lot of people ask that. Yeah, I started
in the warehouse. I just got out of the Marine
Corps and I was supposed to get out September fifteenth,
and we know what happened September eleventh. So I stuck
around for a while and they said at the end,
all right, cab, you can go. And so I got out.
I said I need a job, and I applied and
got the warehouse position. Loading tile and I thought, Okay,
(01:57):
this is great until I go to college. And about
three months later they said, once you try sales, and
that led into an assistant manager position, and then they
asked me to open a new store. And they wanted
all of us Midwest guys who were around the corporate
office to go and open new stores and get that
culture out there. So I moved to Des Moines, Iowa.
I did a stint quickly and Kansas City, and then
(02:21):
I went to Chicago, and then I was able to
come back home and run our Burnsville location back in
two thousand and eight, and then in twenty fifteen, after
I moved around the cities, I ended up back managing
the store that it all started in for me, which
was Roseville. It was one of our biggest stores, and
they asked me to come up and be the head
of pro and I didn't even know what that meant
(02:41):
at the time. I said, you know, sure, I'll do that.
Learned that headed training after a few years, then VP
of sales, and then it was COO and then when
they needed a new CEO, they tapped me, and I
was shocked. Quite frankly, I still have never been to college,
And I said, are you sure, and they said, cab,
(03:01):
it doesn't matter. You know the industry and that's what's
most important, you know, the business.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
That's kind of a trend of people not going to college,
right and maybe that, yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
I think it's pushed a lot of people away due
to the cost and what employers are looking for now.
It's more of a do you have the work ethic?
Do you have the leadership capability? Do you have the
drive to want to succeed? And a four year degree
doesn't always give you that. It gives you a piece
of paper, it's some extra knowledge. But and even those
that get a degree, the ones I'm hiring today at
different levels, they're not getting the job they went to
(03:30):
school four Yeah, so a lot of you know, I
have two kids in their twenties and they, you know,
ones in college right now, one isn't. And that's okay
with me.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Weird question because I know, you know a CEO. I'm
sure you're dealing with numbers a lot and forecasts and
stuff like that, But do you still know a lot
about the tile and what's hot and all that?
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Oh? Absolutely, it's a fashion industry, you know, it's colors
it's textures.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
What do we want?
Speaker 2 (03:51):
You know, that's and a lot of people that's a
great question. People come in and they go, I need
a bathroom, I need a mudroom, I need a fireplace around,
I need a backsplash, And I go, great, that's great,
tell me what you want. Yeah, And then they go,
I don't know, And I said, that's okay, that's why
he came to us, And I'll tell them what's new
and what people are gravitating towards. And it all starts
in Europe. You know. We go to Europe and we
(04:11):
look at Italy. That's where you know, all the fashion
houses are, and whatever we see there, we know we'll
be hot here in the US in about two years. So
it takes about two years to get here. And then
it becomes you know, more and more mainstream Tarazo tile
right now, right that's the nineteen sixties, fifties torazo. Now
they put it on tile or using natural stone and
(04:32):
putting it on porcelain. The technology of inkjet machines has
really disrupted the industry in a good way. You can
get the look of stone for half the prize, and
they can put it on big panels and so it's
people are going bigger. They want bigger tiles, more tile,
less grout, they want color. Now, you know, we all
went through the subway tile, farmhouse, ship lap for the
(04:53):
last ten years, and now everyone's like, no, I want
color in their outdoor colors, greens clues. They want those
outdoor colors to come inside. So it's fun. I get
to go and see the new trends. I get to
purchase the tiles and test them out and see what
resonates with our customer.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Yeah, it's changed. When we built our house like twenty
years ago, it's twelve by twelve tile, Yeah, you know,
and you walk in now, like you said, there's almost
no grout, it's like eighteen inch minimum minimum on one dimension.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Yeah it looks.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
It looks fantastic.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
So you're actually headquartered in Plymouth. How many stores total
do you have or how many locations?
Speaker 2 (05:27):
We have one hundred and forty two. And I like
to say to people, it took us twenty seven years
to build fifty stores. And I started we had like
fifteen at the time, I think. And when we went
public in twenty twelve, you get all this investment, right,
and the whole thing is expand grow fast. It took
us three years to build fifty more and that was
(05:48):
a big challenge. Yeah, and you know, it was all
about do you have the talent in place, do you
have the supply chain, the logistics. It's easy to sign
a lease, Okay, now'll build the store, put the people
in there, you know, get the market going. And so
we learned a lot. It wasn't easy, but we made
it happen.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Did COVID give you guys a little bit of a
bump too?
Speaker 2 (06:06):
You know, COVID was a big challenge for us. I
think due to the fact that it was it was global,
meaning it disrupted supply chains and we all went to
the grocery store. We all went to go find stuff
we didn't have it. It. I had to, unfortunately, furlough
(06:26):
a lot of employees because you know, some areas didn't
have any customers coming in. We couldn't support all the
all the employees. But then it was the year after
COVID where everyone said, I can't go on vacation, I
can't do this, I can't do that. I'm going to
remodelh So our business took off. So it went down
and then it shot way up and then but we
were still dealing with supply chain and if you look
(06:49):
around today, we're still dealing with the effects of COVID.
Housing is is tough because it's very expensive. Interest rates
are high, but we we cater to the remodelers, so
we're doing just fine.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
How does being in a Minnesota company affect the way
that you work or do things or whatever.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
I think that's a secret to our success. It started Minnesota,
and I've talked to people all over the country and
they go, you know, you guys and guys in Minnesota.
You have this great work ethic and it's sought after.
And I go, really, I heard it once, and I
heard it again, and again I go, there's something to this.
And I think it's because us in Minnesota, we have
(07:24):
to shovel, right, We have to mow our lawns, we
have to rake the leaves, we have to do all
these things and then go to work or do it
after work. We have this work ethic that I think
is lost in some areas of the country and it's
just ingrained in US. And so when we started expanding it,
we started putting our Minnesota guys and gals in these
stores and creating that culture of you know, of leadership,
(07:47):
of drive, of you know, competition, and it worked very
well for us. And I think that being a Midwest
company does give you a little more grit than others. Think.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Yeah, you've touched on this a little bit before with
the you know, talking about the contractors versus di wires
or whatever. But what sets the tile shop apart from
other places? It's a great question.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Well, you can walk into a big box store, see
someone wearing a smock, and they're going to point you
in the direction you need to go to find the product.
You know, we have a whole system down, a process,
and we like to call it the experience. We put
on the show. So when people come in and we
hear a lot, this is overwhelming because they walk in
and they see thousands of skews and it's just it
(08:33):
can be overwhelming. So we ask them what they're working on,
and then we lay out the process. We call it
the roadmap. Let's start here, let's figure out what you like,
what you don't like. Then we're going to give you
options of sizes, colors, and we're going to talk layout,
and we take the time with the customer from beginning
to end, and it's not just a tile. We talk
about the grout color, the thin set, the tools needed,
the underlayments, and we have heavily trained associates so they
(08:57):
know design, they know the installation process us, they know
the TCNA code, what needs to happen if your sub
floor is this thick or that thick. So the consumer
feels at ease, they feel confident in their choice, and
we remind them they're investing, and that's the thing. They're
not spending when they come to the tile shop. You
can go anywhere and spend, but when do you get
(09:20):
a return on your investment when it appreciates some value?
Is a TV going to do that? No? Is exercise
equipment going to do that? No? A vacation no. But
when you buy tile invest in your home, you're actually
going to recoup that. And so when you're able to
explain this to the consumer, then you can see the
anxiety leave and all of a sudden, now they're having
fun because they are getting creative and it is an
(09:41):
emotional experience form because we want them to be happy
when they walk into that room. We want them to
be happy in their environment and we're we're able to
help them create that which is fun. I still sell
tile today. You know we're connected to our store. I
walk in it, I love it. I love it. I
love it.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Your so your emphasis is design expertise, some customer service.
What's an example of how you actually created a unique
experience for customer or customers.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Absolutely, we've had We've tiled hotels, We've tiled nursing homes.
We'll tile. You know, I've tiled a dog shower. Okay,
it doesn't matter how big or small.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
The job is.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
You walk through those doors, you're going to get the
best experience.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
I want to get to that point where I have
a dog shower.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Absolutely, it's more and more popular. They're out in the garages.
But you know, I helped a family who recently went
through their houses gutted by a fire, and it was
it was tough, and their their father was disabled veteran,
and they only had so much from insurance. And so
we worked on them with price and we said, you know,
(10:43):
we're going to make this happen for you. And I
have a lot of contractor friends and that I met
through working at the towle shop, and I said, who
can donate a walk in shower for this gentleman. We're
not going to put curbs here. You know, they're going
to be able to wheel in, wheel out. So I
got them tile at a certain price point that worked
for them. I got them some labor pitched in that
could create this environment that they could really live in
(11:05):
comfort and not have the boundaries that a typical shower
or bathroom would have for someone with a disability. And they,
you know, the thank you letters and the tiers, and
I said, guys, it's okay. You know this is what
we want to do for our consumers. No, I can't
do that for everyone, obviously, but you know, the ties
(11:25):
I had with some certain friends made it work for them.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
That is awesome. You know you said something there that
could apply to a lot of people, the cerbliss. Yes,
what's the advantage there?
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Yeah? I mean, if you're gonna if this is your
forever home, do you want to keep stepping over a curb?
But everyone thinks the shower floor needs tiny tiles because
it's shaped like a bowl the water needs to run down. Well,
Now the technology has gotten so great where you can
take the shower floor and slide it all the way
to one end. Then that way you can use huge
tiles no grout, or you can slope the whole room
(11:54):
to that drain. Like in Europe there is no shower floor.
The whole room has one drain in the middle the
wet rooms US. In the US, we like our showers
and keep the water in the shower. But now we
can take away the curb, slide the whole floor in
one direction, have a linear drain, and you can avoid
that typical step that you're going to have. So when
you get into those later years and find yourself not
(12:16):
as mobile, you can go ahead and slide right in there.
You're fine. You get me excited about starting a project here,
not that all of yet.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
We got to talk, so you talked about kind of
an obvious challenge with COVID. A lot of places had
challenges with COVID. What are some other challenges you've had
in your time?
Speaker 2 (12:31):
You know, it's a great question. There's retailers always a
challenge because you're working with supply chain and you're tied
to the economy and the consumer, and if they're strapped,
you got to figure out what to do. Day one,
my first day of being a CEO, we launched a
new ERP system, which is basically a computer system that
controls your supply chain, your POS system, and your stores,
(12:51):
your finance, everything, and it blew up. Nothing worked, And
it was my first day and there was tiers and
a lot of people pointing and screaming. But you know what,
we it up when we got through it, and it
was a big challenge. Six months later, I got everything
under control. We were all humming. Everything was good, and
then COVID hit. After COVID, we realized quickly that okay,
(13:12):
we need to rethink some of our policies, some of
our procedures and operations, and we streamlined enhanced a lot
of things. And then all of a sudden, the housing
industry really took a dive. Right now, existing home sales
is at a thirty year low, which means just the
typical buying and selling of existing homes is down. So
(13:32):
what I decided was we need a new price point.
We were a little more higher priced, and so we
got on some planes, went around, found a great lineup
of SKUs to meet the customer where they are today.
And I quickly realized we should have done this a
while ago. So you need to have your finger on
the pulse of the consumer at all times, and the
(13:53):
price point today is something that's worked very well for us.
Differentiation of our SKUs. We partnered with a bunch of
disig and what we did was they're well known designers.
If you go to our website, you'll know their names
from around the country and we made proprietary skews for them.
So that set us apart from the competition. Our experience
set us apart from the competition, and now we have
(14:13):
price points that can meet all the consumers. If they
want a total marble bath from Italy, we got you.
If you want a two dollars tile to put on
your backslash, we can help you, you know. So it's
retail is transforming all the time and if you're not
going to transform with it, you're going to die. So
this is something where we're always looking at branding, marketing,
(14:34):
our assortment, how we train our staff, and we do
a lot of surveys, feedback stuff, MPs scores. We ask
people to secret shop our stores to see what they
think and oh interesting. Yeah, we're very thrilled with the
scores we're getting. They're leading in the industry. So I
know that the experience is there. Now, I just have
to make sure that we have the right assortment at
(14:56):
the right price.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Talking to Kabloma, CEO from the Tile Shop, have one
hundred and forty two locations, you said, how many states.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Are you in thirty one?
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Are there cultural differences or just different things that happen,
whether it's you know, dealing with customers styles, whatever, across
the US.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Absolutely, so it sells in the South and the Southwest.
Are large tiles yea. Not as much here in the
Midwest because we have basements, you know, and we have
a lot of freeze. Thought our homes move a lot
more up here than you would think. No, can you
do it right and have that Absolutely, But down south
you just pour a slab. It's a lot easier to
put big tiles down. And the adobe and the rust
(15:36):
colors sell well in the Southwest. Here in the Midwest
we sell a lot of slate. Now on the East
coast it's going to be a lot of shiny, high
polished marble glass. So yes, it is very market driven
and we try to put a little bit in every
one of our showrooms. But you can see where you
need to position your inventory at the right distribution center,
(15:57):
so you know, you don't have to ship a lot
of it all over the country. But it's not a
perfect science by any means. We do use technology to
help us out and forecast that, but yeah, it's different
in every region.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
We're someplace people don't normally think to put tile, or
maybe they should.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
We're seeing a lot of mudroom walls, so the kids
come in and they're throwing their coat on the hangar
or the hook and they you know, those walls get
just beat up. So a lot of people now are
tiling both walls in their mudroom instead of just the floor.
I'm seeing ceilings done now, I'm seeing entire bathrooms again.
Here in the US, we're used to having our ways
(16:34):
cutting and then a little bit of paint on our
bathroom walls. Yeah, you go to Europe, you go anywhere
else in the world, it's tiled floor to ceiling. They
don't know what a wayne'scot is. They go, why would
you do that? And so it's beneficial for us. It's
more square footage of tile being sold, But I see
that European trend moving more and more into the US.
Even the square footage of heart surface sold per household
(16:57):
has been growing. People are getting sick of car but
you know, it's just one of those things and allergies, allergies,
you got it, shamp I got dogs. I'm always cleaning
my carpet in that one area. So LVT has been
exploded into our industry. Luxury vinyl tile, you know, that
has a great price point. It's waterproof, you can sweep
(17:18):
a mop it. It's it's great for all areas. So
that's been a big thing. But to the space, I
would say more walls and homes are being done, even
bedroom walls are being done. So it's it's all over
and outdoors. Nobody does countertops really anymore? Do they? Like?
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Not the same way, like like you're watching a movie.
Oh this is from the eighties.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Well, I got everybody loves Raymond. I mean, I'm a
tall guy. So I stare at that counter in their
kitchen and it's four and a quarter tile, and I'm
like a grout. You know, you're going to see a
lot more slabs, gambrias, all those those types of slab materials.
They're not just granted anymore. The composites that are you know,
baked and pressed together and they look gorgeous and so
(17:58):
we're not into the slab business yet. For countertops, it's
an opportunity for us, but we love having those consumers
come in when they need that backsplash and we help
them out those slabs they must be prefabricated, right, yeah, absolutely,
but then still they have to be carried in somehow
right oh yeah, yeah, there's a old industry that helps
you do that. And yeah, they're an investment and we
(18:19):
always tell peoplehen you're doing a backsplash, you want to
compliment that investment, not compete. So let's find the right
tile to really make it pop.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
What are the long term goals? Where do you see
the tile shop in five to ten years.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Yeah, I want to get back to growth. You know,
I'm going to wait a little bit for the industry
to turn the macro or they say the economy. Once
that starts to turn around, I can open some more stores.
And you hear the word omni channel and omni channels
meeting the consumer where they want to be met. If
it's on their phone and their car, they're at home,
on their desktop, they're at work, or they want to
(18:52):
go back into the store and get that experience Continuing
to invest in the omni channel experience for our consumers
is key and that takes technology. You think about AI,
what does that do for you. We're investing now into
different things that allows us to get i'd say, faster
response from the consumer, faster response from our vendors, so
we can again meet that consumer today with their needs
(19:15):
instead of saying, oh, you want that, let me go
find it, buy it, ship it. In six months, I'll
have it. We need to speed that up because we
do import from over thirty countries and it's a time
consuming process.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Give like a visual AI thing where you can place
the product in where it's going to get yah.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
We have a tool on our website that you can
play and pick out rooms and that can be enhanced
as well. So we're looking at new ways to take
the photo of your actual room and upload it. So
right now we just have different examples, but that's one
way or how we even communicate with our consumers via
e commerce. We have a customer service team right now
that does it. But how does AI enhance that for
(19:53):
the consumer. We don't want to make ourselves lazy. What
we want to do is really enhance the con tent
that we're able to create and serve to our consumer.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
I feel like every time I talk to somebody, they're renovating,
They're doing some project or something like that. So for
like the remainder of this year or next year, I mean,
are you guys ready, I feel like there's a lot
of tile going in places.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Yeah. Right now people are realizing, well, I have that
low interest rate, I'm not going to move, so what
am I going to do? I'm going to remodel, right,
I'm going to remodel this, I'm going to remodel that.
And we're seeing a big uptick and remodel work and
people are saying, well, what fits with my housing style?
What can I do in this budget? And like I said,
the products have really expanded both in size and in price,
(20:37):
so you can get anything to fit anyone's budget and
make it fun. I see remodel activity continuing to boom
until interest rates come down. And there's such a big
pent up demand right now for people to buy houses.
But the average home price here is four hundred thousand
dollars yep, and we're looking at a six percent interest rate.
So when it gets down to about five, you're going
(20:59):
to see housing, the pricing drop and you're going to
see a lot more demand. And once that that happens,
then it's going to be kind of crazy, and we're
looking forward to that. But right now we're servicing that
remodel customer and it's been good. You know, if you
have the right business model, you're able to survive the
tough times. I was a store manager in two thousand
(21:20):
and eight the financial crisis hit. I was in Chicago
and everything stopped, and all of a sudden, my truck
came all this window washing gear. And I called my
boss at the time and I said, I go, oh,
window washing gear. What is that. He goes, well, you're
now the new window washer, Cabby. And he goes call
and cancel your contract. And I said, oh, yes, sir,
and I did it. And so you tighten your belt
(21:41):
during the times, and you manage your expenses and you
do things the right way and you get through it.
And we always have at the Tile Shop. We've been
through multiple you know, recessions, pandemics, erp nightmares, and we
always come out, we adapt and we thrive. Kyle last Man,
it does, it does. It's great.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
On the other side of the renovation like, for if
you're building a new house, and I don't want to
saything bad. I mean sometimes it's kind of plain Jane.
But you guys have associates that specialize with new construction
as well.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Absolutely, when people come in with blueprints, we know we
have some time. It's not like I need this next week.
And so what we do is to go through the process,
set our priorities, what room is, what priority, and then
we start working our way down the list. And it's
that's my that's the fun I have. When I walk
out of my office and I walk out and show
the floor and I see everyone smiling and placing tiles
(22:33):
up here and moving stuff around. I call them a
tile bomb because when they walk away, there's just a
bomb of tile that we have. And I go, I smile,
and I think to myself, that was engagement. Someone was
engaging there with a consumer associate, and they're having fun.
And and when I see people with the having fun
with the tile and mixing and matching, and that tells
me we're doing a good job. And when I walk
(22:54):
into a store and there's no tile bombs and there's nothing,
and I'm like, there's no there's no engagement going on here.
It makes me nervous, So I encourage making a mess.
I let's make a big mess. Let's have some fun.
Take home some samples. See what works for you.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
That my next question.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Oh yeah, yeah, we we we give samples to our pros.
So a regular consumer can buy a single piece and
get a refund when they bring it back. So yeah,
we want to make sure it's right for them in
their space.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
You're known for community involvement. What sort of causes or
nonprofits do you guys deal with?
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Yeah, I currently sit on the board of the Ron
McDonald House Upper Midwest, And again that was brought to
us through the tile shop. We were asked if we
could provide tile for a room for a family. We
remodeled the whole room and I was the pro guy
at the time. So I was the camera guy, the
guy who had the tape measure on and it was
for designing spaces. They did the TV show.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Oh cool, So.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Yeah, I pretended I knew what I was doing. But anyway, where.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Can we find that? We got to look, we got
to see what you look like.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Yeah, it's great, but there's a lot of downtime, and
so I got to work with the kids. I just
sat with the kids for hours every day, and I
couldn't believe the families who I had to hold it
together every day, you know, and they're not there for
three days, They're there for three months, six months, nine
months at a time. And I said, however else you
can utilize me, how I can help? I would love
(24:14):
to get involved. And then they asked me to join
the board. And that's when I said, the tile Shop's
main thing is going to be the Ron McDonald House,
and we support all the activities, the race for the kids,
brew love the gala every year. And now I'm sitting
on their executive board, so I get to watch, Okay,
what are we going to do and how are we
going to grow? How can we serve more families throughout
(24:35):
this organization? And you know, I think I tell all
my friends, I go, you know, you think you've had
a bad day, you think you got problems, go volunteer
for one day, one day at the rom McDonald house.
You're gonna walk back to your car and you're gonna say,
I don't have any problems. You know, I'm fine, Because
whatever I thought was stressing me out is nothing but
these families are going through every day, and so I'm
(24:56):
very proud to be an advocate for the for the
house that we call it the hu us at Love
Built and we're at capacity, unfortunately, always at capacity. So
we're looking at buying a new building, trying to double
our capacity. Go and raise a lot of funds here
in the next few years and see if we can't
do it. Wow, And we're going to move everything and
be hopefully have the right center next to children's and
(25:18):
we have a school there, a commercial kitchen that we
just finished and we're gonna have to move all of it,
but hopefully we can because that is close to my
heart and a lot of people at work we do
volunteer work over there. And yeah, it's something the tile
shop is proud to be aligned with.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
What else should people know about tile shop.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Change? And when you think about tile it is fashion
and fashion changes, and we want you to say, let
me go back and see what's new. We get new
boards every week, we get new skews every week. We
have vendors that come overseas to visit us, and we go,
that's cool, let's try that. That's cool. So a lot
of people go I was there a couple of years ago.
Come back, come, look what's new. We remodeled our stores
(25:58):
here in the metro and all over the country. We
have all the new stuff, and even designers that come
in almost every other week working with clients. They come
in and go, when'd you get that? Cab? I said,
I got that last week? When'd you get that? So
check it out. Even if you're not buying tile, be
inspired by the color, by the texture. We have all
(26:19):
these tiled vignettes, you know, showers, kitchens, bathrooms, everything you
can walk in and just be inspired, even if you're
not doing a job. Maybe you want to do a
job in two years, come to the tile shop, walk around.
We'd be happy to fill you with information to think
about while you prepare for that next project. Yeah, and
people always say you have the most beautiful showrooms we've
ever seen. And Minny you have Saint Paul Magazine named
(26:41):
us number one tile business here in Minnesota just two
weeks ago, so I was proud of that. But yeah,
check us out. We're always changing.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Before we started, you were telling me about some really
old tile. I mean we're talking about new changes or
did things that are changing in the industry. But some
old tile you were talking about last forever, right.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Yes, well we do that obviously. Natural stone, being that
it's unique, it'll always last. It never dates. The statue
David Marble. Yeah, you know, you go to a church
that's three hundred years old and it's got white marble.
Looks beautiful today. If we walked into a nineteen fifties
bathroom and you see a pink you know, four x
four in the wall, you're like, yeah, that's a nineteen
fifties bathroom. So I tell everyone the only man made
(27:20):
tile today that exists today that will not date is
your three by six or your four x eight subway tile.
And that's our number one cellar. Imagine that everyone comes in,
they look at all the colors and they buy a
subway tile.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
But and I made that comment. I'm like, all the
new houses are people that I know they're remodeling. It's
all subway tile.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
It's good.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
But you say that's never going to go out.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
No, it's Turning Century Victorian, Modern loft living, Southwest Cape
Cod It'll always stand the test of time. But what
I am seeing is there was a big fad the
last ten years of ship lap farmhouse white and grays
that has moved now it's it's greens, blues. And when
I was in Italy this last year, I can see
what's coming and it's going now to Adobe's. It's going
(27:59):
to brown. We're going back to warm tones. See fashion
is cyclical. Okay. No one wanted a penny round in
the eighties because that was the fifties. Now everyone now
everyone wants penny rounds again. No one wants pink or
blue tile because that was a fifth. Now everyone's sick
of white and they want pink and blue tiles and
so it's but they want pastel versions. They want this version,
(28:20):
and you know you can get there's millions of different colors,
and so once you land on one that people resonate with,
it works. Bell Bottoms came back, so I see it
on ladies today, they're wearing Bell bottoms. It's uh, it's wild.
But it's That's why I can say tile is fashion
and it's still People shake their head and I go, no,
it's real.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
You're right. Kabloma, CEO Tile Shop, thanks for being
Speaker 2 (28:44):
Here, absolutely, thanks for having me
It's another CEOs you should know. I'm Adam West and
with me today from the Tile shop, cab Loma.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Welcome, thank you, glad to be here, big fan of tile.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Do you have a lot of tile in your house?
I do, yes, of course. It's amazing when you can
what tile is now and how many different plays like
stuff that doesn't even look like tile is tyle.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Absolutely, you're seeing the trends change immensely over the last
five ten years. Everyone knew small tile when I started
a big tile with a twelve by twelve yeah, and
now we sell tile that's two foot by four foot
and there's ten foot tiles out there, so it's the
trend is getting bigger for sure.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Who gets to carry those in right, Yeah?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
The contractors and the forklifts.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
So you guys just deal with contractors pretty much, and
then the customers come in a pick or do you
deal with di I wires as well.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
That's what makes us very unique. We sell directly to
the retail consumer, and we also have a program like
a distributor would for the contractors, so we're unicorn in
the industry.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Okay, you your logo is very recognizable because it's got
tile or it looks like Tie was in it. You
guys have been around for like four decades.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yeah, we're celebrating our fortieth year anniversary this year. So
it's Bob Rutger, the founder. Started nineteen eighty five in Rochester, Minnesota.
Shortly thereafter moved to Bloomington, and that's store number two,
so it's still open today. That's our second ever store.
I started in Roseville at store number four back in
two thousand and one.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Yeah, well I'm from that area. Where's the where's that one?
Speaker 2 (01:25):
It's on the corner of County Road Sea and Fairview
A review.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
That's what I thought. Okay, so you started in two
thousand and one, you're now CEO. What are some lessons
that you've learned in that time.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
It's a lot of people ask that. Yeah, I started
in the warehouse. I just got out of the Marine
Corps and I was supposed to get out September fifteenth,
and we know what happened September eleventh. So I stuck
around for a while and they said at the end,
all right, cab, you can go. And so I got out.
I said I need a job, and I applied and
got the warehouse position. Loading tile and I thought, Okay,
(01:57):
this is great until I go to college. And about
three months later they said, once you try sales, and
that led into an assistant manager position, and then they
asked me to open a new store. And they wanted
all of us Midwest guys who were around the corporate
office to go and open new stores and get that
culture out there. So I moved to Des Moines, Iowa.
I did a stint quickly and Kansas City, and then
(02:21):
I went to Chicago, and then I was able to
come back home and run our Burnsville location back in
two thousand and eight, and then in twenty fifteen, after
I moved around the cities, I ended up back managing
the store that it all started in for me, which
was Roseville. It was one of our biggest stores, and
they asked me to come up and be the head
of pro and I didn't even know what that meant
(02:41):
at the time. I said, you know, sure, I'll do that.
Learned that headed training after a few years, then VP
of sales, and then it was COO and then when
they needed a new CEO, they tapped me, and I
was shocked. Quite frankly, I still have never been to college,
And I said, are you sure, and they said, cab,
(03:01):
it doesn't matter. You know the industry and that's what's
most important, you know, the business.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
That's kind of a trend of people not going to college,
right and maybe that, yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
I think it's pushed a lot of people away due
to the cost and what employers are looking for now.
It's more of a do you have the work ethic?
Do you have the leadership capability? Do you have the
drive to want to succeed? And a four year degree
doesn't always give you that. It gives you a piece
of paper, it's some extra knowledge. But and even those
that get a degree, the ones I'm hiring today at
different levels, they're not getting the job they went to
(03:30):
school four Yeah, so a lot of you know, I
have two kids in their twenties and they, you know,
ones in college right now, one isn't. And that's okay
with me.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Weird question because I know, you know a CEO. I'm
sure you're dealing with numbers a lot and forecasts and
stuff like that, But do you still know a lot
about the tile and what's hot and all that?
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Oh? Absolutely, it's a fashion industry, you know, it's colors
it's textures.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
What do we want?
Speaker 2 (03:51):
You know, that's and a lot of people that's a
great question. People come in and they go, I need
a bathroom, I need a mudroom, I need a fireplace around,
I need a backsplash, And I go, great, that's great,
tell me what you want. Yeah, And then they go,
I don't know, And I said, that's okay, that's why
he came to us, And I'll tell them what's new
and what people are gravitating towards. And it all starts
in Europe. You know. We go to Europe and we
(04:11):
look at Italy. That's where you know, all the fashion
houses are, and whatever we see there, we know we'll
be hot here in the US in about two years. So
it takes about two years to get here. And then
it becomes you know, more and more mainstream Tarazo tile
right now, right that's the nineteen sixties, fifties torazo. Now
they put it on tile or using natural stone and
(04:32):
putting it on porcelain. The technology of inkjet machines has
really disrupted the industry in a good way. You can
get the look of stone for half the prize, and
they can put it on big panels and so it's
people are going bigger. They want bigger tiles, more tile,
less grout, they want color. Now, you know, we all
went through the subway tile, farmhouse, ship lap for the
(04:53):
last ten years, and now everyone's like, no, I want
color in their outdoor colors, greens clues. They want those
outdoor colors to come inside. So it's fun. I get
to go and see the new trends. I get to
purchase the tiles and test them out and see what
resonates with our customer.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Yeah, it's changed. When we built our house like twenty
years ago, it's twelve by twelve tile, Yeah, you know,
and you walk in now, like you said, there's almost
no grout, it's like eighteen inch minimum minimum on one dimension.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Yeah it looks.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
It looks fantastic.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
So you're actually headquartered in Plymouth. How many stores total
do you have or how many locations?
Speaker 2 (05:27):
We have one hundred and forty two. And I like
to say to people, it took us twenty seven years
to build fifty stores. And I started we had like
fifteen at the time, I think. And when we went
public in twenty twelve, you get all this investment, right,
and the whole thing is expand grow fast. It took
us three years to build fifty more and that was
(05:48):
a big challenge. Yeah, and you know, it was all
about do you have the talent in place, do you
have the supply chain, the logistics. It's easy to sign
a lease, Okay, now'll build the store, put the people
in there, you know, get the market going. And so
we learned a lot. It wasn't easy, but we made
it happen.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Did COVID give you guys a little bit of a
bump too?
Speaker 2 (06:06):
You know, COVID was a big challenge for us. I
think due to the fact that it was it was global,
meaning it disrupted supply chains and we all went to
the grocery store. We all went to go find stuff
we didn't have it. It. I had to, unfortunately, furlough
(06:26):
a lot of employees because you know, some areas didn't
have any customers coming in. We couldn't support all the
all the employees. But then it was the year after
COVID where everyone said, I can't go on vacation, I
can't do this, I can't do that. I'm going to
remodelh So our business took off. So it went down
and then it shot way up and then but we
were still dealing with supply chain and if you look
(06:49):
around today, we're still dealing with the effects of COVID.
Housing is is tough because it's very expensive. Interest rates
are high, but we we cater to the remodelers, so
we're doing just fine.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
How does being in a Minnesota company affect the way
that you work or do things or whatever.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
I think that's a secret to our success. It started Minnesota,
and I've talked to people all over the country and
they go, you know, you guys and guys in Minnesota.
You have this great work ethic and it's sought after.
And I go, really, I heard it once, and I
heard it again, and again I go, there's something to this.
And I think it's because us in Minnesota, we have
(07:24):
to shovel, right, We have to mow our lawns, we
have to rake the leaves, we have to do all
these things and then go to work or do it
after work. We have this work ethic that I think
is lost in some areas of the country and it's
just ingrained in US. And so when we started expanding it,
we started putting our Minnesota guys and gals in these
stores and creating that culture of you know, of leadership,
(07:47):
of drive, of you know, competition, and it worked very
well for us. And I think that being a Midwest
company does give you a little more grit than others. Think.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Yeah, you've touched on this a little bit before with
the you know, talking about the contractors versus di wires
or whatever. But what sets the tile shop apart from
other places? It's a great question.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Well, you can walk into a big box store, see
someone wearing a smock, and they're going to point you
in the direction you need to go to find the product.
You know, we have a whole system down, a process,
and we like to call it the experience. We put
on the show. So when people come in and we
hear a lot, this is overwhelming because they walk in
and they see thousands of skews and it's just it
(08:33):
can be overwhelming. So we ask them what they're working on,
and then we lay out the process. We call it
the roadmap. Let's start here, let's figure out what you like,
what you don't like. Then we're going to give you
options of sizes, colors, and we're going to talk layout,
and we take the time with the customer from beginning
to end, and it's not just a tile. We talk
about the grout color, the thin set, the tools needed,
the underlayments, and we have heavily trained associates so they
(08:57):
know design, they know the installation process us, they know
the TCNA code, what needs to happen if your sub
floor is this thick or that thick. So the consumer
feels at ease, they feel confident in their choice, and
we remind them they're investing, and that's the thing. They're
not spending when they come to the tile shop. You
can go anywhere and spend, but when do you get
(09:20):
a return on your investment when it appreciates some value?
Is a TV going to do that? No? Is exercise
equipment going to do that? No? A vacation no. But
when you buy tile invest in your home, you're actually
going to recoup that. And so when you're able to
explain this to the consumer, then you can see the
anxiety leave and all of a sudden, now they're having
fun because they are getting creative and it is an
(09:41):
emotional experience form because we want them to be happy
when they walk into that room. We want them to
be happy in their environment and we're we're able to
help them create that which is fun. I still sell
tile today. You know we're connected to our store. I
walk in it, I love it. I love it. I
love it.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Your so your emphasis is design expertise, some customer service.
What's an example of how you actually created a unique
experience for customer or customers.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Absolutely, we've had We've tiled hotels, We've tiled nursing homes.
We'll tile. You know, I've tiled a dog shower. Okay,
it doesn't matter how big or small.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
The job is.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
You walk through those doors, you're going to get the
best experience.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
I want to get to that point where I have
a dog shower.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Absolutely, it's more and more popular. They're out in the garages.
But you know, I helped a family who recently went
through their houses gutted by a fire, and it was
it was tough, and their their father was disabled veteran,
and they only had so much from insurance. And so
we worked on them with price and we said, you know,
(10:43):
we're going to make this happen for you. And I
have a lot of contractor friends and that I met
through working at the towle shop, and I said, who
can donate a walk in shower for this gentleman. We're
not going to put curbs here. You know, they're going
to be able to wheel in, wheel out. So I
got them tile at a certain price point that worked
for them. I got them some labor pitched in that
could create this environment that they could really live in
(11:05):
comfort and not have the boundaries that a typical shower
or bathroom would have for someone with a disability. And they,
you know, the thank you letters and the tiers, and
I said, guys, it's okay. You know this is what
we want to do for our consumers. No, I can't
do that for everyone, obviously, but you know, the ties
(11:25):
I had with some certain friends made it work for them.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
That is awesome. You know you said something there that
could apply to a lot of people, the cerbliss. Yes,
what's the advantage there?
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Yeah? I mean, if you're gonna if this is your
forever home, do you want to keep stepping over a curb?
But everyone thinks the shower floor needs tiny tiles because
it's shaped like a bowl the water needs to run down. Well,
Now the technology has gotten so great where you can
take the shower floor and slide it all the way
to one end. Then that way you can use huge
tiles no grout, or you can slope the whole room
(11:54):
to that drain. Like in Europe there is no shower floor.
The whole room has one drain in the middle the
wet rooms US. In the US, we like our showers
and keep the water in the shower. But now we
can take away the curb, slide the whole floor in
one direction, have a linear drain, and you can avoid
that typical step that you're going to have. So when
you get into those later years and find yourself not
(12:16):
as mobile, you can go ahead and slide right in there.
You're fine. You get me excited about starting a project here,
not that all of yet.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
We got to talk, so you talked about kind of
an obvious challenge with COVID. A lot of places had
challenges with COVID. What are some other challenges you've had
in your time?
Speaker 2 (12:31):
You know, it's a great question. There's retailers always a
challenge because you're working with supply chain and you're tied
to the economy and the consumer, and if they're strapped,
you got to figure out what to do. Day one,
my first day of being a CEO, we launched a
new ERP system, which is basically a computer system that
controls your supply chain, your POS system, and your stores,
(12:51):
your finance, everything, and it blew up. Nothing worked, And
it was my first day and there was tiers and
a lot of people pointing and screaming. But you know what,
we it up when we got through it, and it
was a big challenge. Six months later, I got everything
under control. We were all humming. Everything was good, and
then COVID hit. After COVID, we realized quickly that okay,
(13:12):
we need to rethink some of our policies, some of
our procedures and operations, and we streamlined enhanced a lot
of things. And then all of a sudden, the housing
industry really took a dive. Right now, existing home sales
is at a thirty year low, which means just the
typical buying and selling of existing homes is down. So
(13:32):
what I decided was we need a new price point.
We were a little more higher priced, and so we
got on some planes, went around, found a great lineup
of SKUs to meet the customer where they are today.
And I quickly realized we should have done this a
while ago. So you need to have your finger on
the pulse of the consumer at all times, and the
(13:53):
price point today is something that's worked very well for us.
Differentiation of our SKUs. We partnered with a bunch of
disig and what we did was they're well known designers.
If you go to our website, you'll know their names
from around the country and we made proprietary skews for them.
So that set us apart from the competition. Our experience
set us apart from the competition, and now we have
(14:13):
price points that can meet all the consumers. If they
want a total marble bath from Italy, we got you.
If you want a two dollars tile to put on
your backslash, we can help you, you know. So it's
retail is transforming all the time and if you're not
going to transform with it, you're going to die. So
this is something where we're always looking at branding, marketing,
(14:34):
our assortment, how we train our staff, and we do
a lot of surveys, feedback stuff, MPs scores. We ask
people to secret shop our stores to see what they
think and oh interesting. Yeah, we're very thrilled with the
scores we're getting. They're leading in the industry. So I
know that the experience is there. Now, I just have
to make sure that we have the right assortment at
(14:56):
the right price.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Talking to Kabloma, CEO from the Tile Shop, have one
hundred and forty two locations, you said, how many states.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Are you in thirty one?
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Are there cultural differences or just different things that happen,
whether it's you know, dealing with customers styles, whatever, across
the US.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Absolutely, so it sells in the South and the Southwest.
Are large tiles yea. Not as much here in the
Midwest because we have basements, you know, and we have
a lot of freeze. Thought our homes move a lot
more up here than you would think. No, can you
do it right and have that Absolutely, But down south
you just pour a slab. It's a lot easier to
put big tiles down. And the adobe and the rust
(15:36):
colors sell well in the Southwest. Here in the Midwest
we sell a lot of slate. Now on the East
coast it's going to be a lot of shiny, high
polished marble glass. So yes, it is very market driven
and we try to put a little bit in every
one of our showrooms. But you can see where you
need to position your inventory at the right distribution center,
(15:57):
so you know, you don't have to ship a lot
of it all over the country. But it's not a
perfect science by any means. We do use technology to
help us out and forecast that, but yeah, it's different
in every region.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
We're someplace people don't normally think to put tile, or
maybe they should.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
We're seeing a lot of mudroom walls, so the kids
come in and they're throwing their coat on the hangar
or the hook and they you know, those walls get
just beat up. So a lot of people now are
tiling both walls in their mudroom instead of just the floor.
I'm seeing ceilings done now, I'm seeing entire bathrooms again.
Here in the US, we're used to having our ways
(16:34):
cutting and then a little bit of paint on our
bathroom walls. Yeah, you go to Europe, you go anywhere
else in the world, it's tiled floor to ceiling. They
don't know what a wayne'scot is. They go, why would
you do that? And so it's beneficial for us. It's
more square footage of tile being sold, But I see
that European trend moving more and more into the US.
Even the square footage of heart surface sold per household
(16:57):
has been growing. People are getting sick of car but
you know, it's just one of those things and allergies, allergies,
you got it, shamp I got dogs. I'm always cleaning
my carpet in that one area. So LVT has been
exploded into our industry. Luxury vinyl tile, you know, that
has a great price point. It's waterproof, you can sweep
(17:18):
a mop it. It's it's great for all areas. So
that's been a big thing. But to the space, I
would say more walls and homes are being done, even
bedroom walls are being done. So it's it's all over
and outdoors. Nobody does countertops really anymore? Do they? Like?
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Not the same way, like like you're watching a movie.
Oh this is from the eighties.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Well, I got everybody loves Raymond. I mean, I'm a
tall guy. So I stare at that counter in their
kitchen and it's four and a quarter tile, and I'm
like a grout. You know, you're going to see a
lot more slabs, gambrias, all those those types of slab materials.
They're not just granted anymore. The composites that are you know,
baked and pressed together and they look gorgeous and so
(17:58):
we're not into the slab business yet. For countertops, it's
an opportunity for us, but we love having those consumers
come in when they need that backsplash and we help
them out those slabs they must be prefabricated, right, yeah, absolutely,
but then still they have to be carried in somehow
right oh yeah, yeah, there's a old industry that helps
you do that. And yeah, they're an investment and we
(18:19):
always tell peoplehen you're doing a backsplash, you want to
compliment that investment, not compete. So let's find the right
tile to really make it pop.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
What are the long term goals? Where do you see
the tile shop in five to ten years.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Yeah, I want to get back to growth. You know,
I'm going to wait a little bit for the industry
to turn the macro or they say the economy. Once
that starts to turn around, I can open some more stores.
And you hear the word omni channel and omni channels
meeting the consumer where they want to be met. If
it's on their phone and their car, they're at home,
on their desktop, they're at work, or they want to
(18:52):
go back into the store and get that experience Continuing
to invest in the omni channel experience for our consumers
is key and that takes technology. You think about AI,
what does that do for you. We're investing now into
different things that allows us to get i'd say, faster
response from the consumer, faster response from our vendors, so
we can again meet that consumer today with their needs
(19:15):
instead of saying, oh, you want that, let me go
find it, buy it, ship it. In six months, I'll
have it. We need to speed that up because we
do import from over thirty countries and it's a time
consuming process.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Give like a visual AI thing where you can place
the product in where it's going to get yah.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
We have a tool on our website that you can
play and pick out rooms and that can be enhanced
as well. So we're looking at new ways to take
the photo of your actual room and upload it. So
right now we just have different examples, but that's one
way or how we even communicate with our consumers via
e commerce. We have a customer service team right now
that does it. But how does AI enhance that for
(19:53):
the consumer. We don't want to make ourselves lazy. What
we want to do is really enhance the con tent
that we're able to create and serve to our consumer.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
I feel like every time I talk to somebody, they're renovating,
They're doing some project or something like that. So for
like the remainder of this year or next year, I mean,
are you guys ready, I feel like there's a lot
of tile going in places.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Yeah. Right now people are realizing, well, I have that
low interest rate, I'm not going to move, so what
am I going to do? I'm going to remodel, right,
I'm going to remodel this, I'm going to remodel that.
And we're seeing a big uptick and remodel work and
people are saying, well, what fits with my housing style?
What can I do in this budget? And like I said,
the products have really expanded both in size and in price,
(20:37):
so you can get anything to fit anyone's budget and
make it fun. I see remodel activity continuing to boom
until interest rates come down. And there's such a big
pent up demand right now for people to buy houses.
But the average home price here is four hundred thousand
dollars yep, and we're looking at a six percent interest rate.
So when it gets down to about five, you're going
(20:59):
to see housing, the pricing drop and you're going to
see a lot more demand. And once that that happens,
then it's going to be kind of crazy, and we're
looking forward to that. But right now we're servicing that
remodel customer and it's been good. You know, if you
have the right business model, you're able to survive the
tough times. I was a store manager in two thousand
(21:20):
and eight the financial crisis hit. I was in Chicago
and everything stopped, and all of a sudden, my truck
came all this window washing gear. And I called my
boss at the time and I said, I go, oh,
window washing gear. What is that. He goes, well, you're
now the new window washer, Cabby. And he goes call
and cancel your contract. And I said, oh, yes, sir,
and I did it. And so you tighten your belt
(21:41):
during the times, and you manage your expenses and you
do things the right way and you get through it.
And we always have at the Tile Shop. We've been
through multiple you know, recessions, pandemics, erp nightmares, and we
always come out, we adapt and we thrive. Kyle last Man,
it does, it does. It's great.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
On the other side of the renovation like, for if
you're building a new house, and I don't want to
saything bad. I mean sometimes it's kind of plain Jane.
But you guys have associates that specialize with new construction
as well.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Absolutely, when people come in with blueprints, we know we
have some time. It's not like I need this next week.
And so what we do is to go through the process,
set our priorities, what room is, what priority, and then
we start working our way down the list. And it's
that's my that's the fun I have. When I walk
out of my office and I walk out and show
the floor and I see everyone smiling and placing tiles
(22:33):
up here and moving stuff around. I call them a
tile bomb because when they walk away, there's just a
bomb of tile that we have. And I go, I smile,
and I think to myself, that was engagement. Someone was
engaging there with a consumer associate, and they're having fun.
And and when I see people with the having fun
with the tile and mixing and matching, and that tells
me we're doing a good job. And when I walk
(22:54):
into a store and there's no tile bombs and there's nothing,
and I'm like, there's no there's no engagement going on here.
It makes me nervous, So I encourage making a mess.
I let's make a big mess. Let's have some fun.
Take home some samples. See what works for you.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
That my next question.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Oh yeah, yeah, we we we give samples to our pros.
So a regular consumer can buy a single piece and
get a refund when they bring it back. So yeah,
we want to make sure it's right for them in
their space.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
You're known for community involvement. What sort of causes or
nonprofits do you guys deal with?
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Yeah, I currently sit on the board of the Ron
McDonald House Upper Midwest, And again that was brought to
us through the tile shop. We were asked if we
could provide tile for a room for a family. We
remodeled the whole room and I was the pro guy
at the time. So I was the camera guy, the
guy who had the tape measure on and it was
for designing spaces. They did the TV show.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Oh cool, So.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Yeah, I pretended I knew what I was doing. But anyway, where.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Can we find that? We got to look, we got
to see what you look like.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Yeah, it's great, but there's a lot of downtime, and
so I got to work with the kids. I just
sat with the kids for hours every day, and I
couldn't believe the families who I had to hold it
together every day, you know, and they're not there for
three days, They're there for three months, six months, nine
months at a time. And I said, however else you
can utilize me, how I can help? I would love
(24:14):
to get involved. And then they asked me to join
the board. And that's when I said, the tile Shop's
main thing is going to be the Ron McDonald House,
and we support all the activities, the race for the kids,
brew love the gala every year. And now I'm sitting
on their executive board, so I get to watch, Okay,
what are we going to do and how are we
going to grow? How can we serve more families throughout
(24:35):
this organization? And you know, I think I tell all
my friends, I go, you know, you think you've had
a bad day, you think you got problems, go volunteer
for one day, one day at the rom McDonald house.
You're gonna walk back to your car and you're gonna say,
I don't have any problems. You know, I'm fine, Because
whatever I thought was stressing me out is nothing but
these families are going through every day, and so I'm
(24:56):
very proud to be an advocate for the for the
house that we call it the hu us at Love
Built and we're at capacity, unfortunately, always at capacity. So
we're looking at buying a new building, trying to double
our capacity. Go and raise a lot of funds here
in the next few years and see if we can't
do it. Wow, And we're going to move everything and
be hopefully have the right center next to children's and
(25:18):
we have a school there, a commercial kitchen that we
just finished and we're gonna have to move all of it,
but hopefully we can because that is close to my
heart and a lot of people at work we do
volunteer work over there. And yeah, it's something the tile
shop is proud to be aligned with.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
What else should people know about tile shop.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Change? And when you think about tile it is fashion
and fashion changes, and we want you to say, let
me go back and see what's new. We get new
boards every week, we get new skews every week. We
have vendors that come overseas to visit us, and we go,
that's cool, let's try that. That's cool. So a lot
of people go I was there a couple of years ago.
Come back, come, look what's new. We remodeled our stores
(25:58):
here in the metro and all over the country. We
have all the new stuff, and even designers that come
in almost every other week working with clients. They come
in and go, when'd you get that? Cab? I said,
I got that last week? When'd you get that? So
check it out. Even if you're not buying tile, be
inspired by the color, by the texture. We have all
(26:19):
these tiled vignettes, you know, showers, kitchens, bathrooms, everything you
can walk in and just be inspired, even if you're
not doing a job. Maybe you want to do a
job in two years, come to the tile shop, walk around.
We'd be happy to fill you with information to think
about while you prepare for that next project. Yeah, and
people always say you have the most beautiful showrooms we've
ever seen. And Minny you have Saint Paul Magazine named
(26:41):
us number one tile business here in Minnesota just two
weeks ago, so I was proud of that. But yeah,
check us out. We're always changing.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Before we started, you were telling me about some really
old tile. I mean we're talking about new changes or
did things that are changing in the industry. But some
old tile you were talking about last forever, right.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Yes, well we do that obviously. Natural stone, being that
it's unique, it'll always last. It never dates. The statue
David Marble. Yeah, you know, you go to a church
that's three hundred years old and it's got white marble.
Looks beautiful today. If we walked into a nineteen fifties
bathroom and you see a pink you know, four x
four in the wall, you're like, yeah, that's a nineteen
fifties bathroom. So I tell everyone the only man made
(27:20):
tile today that exists today that will not date is
your three by six or your four x eight subway tile.
And that's our number one cellar. Imagine that everyone comes in,
they look at all the colors and they buy a
subway tile.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
But and I made that comment. I'm like, all the
new houses are people that I know they're remodeling. It's
all subway tile.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
It's good.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
But you say that's never going to go out.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
No, it's Turning Century Victorian, Modern loft living, Southwest Cape
Cod It'll always stand the test of time. But what
I am seeing is there was a big fad the
last ten years of ship lap farmhouse white and grays
that has moved now it's it's greens, blues. And when
I was in Italy this last year, I can see
what's coming and it's going now to Adobe's. It's going
(27:59):
to brown. We're going back to warm tones. See fashion
is cyclical. Okay. No one wanted a penny round in
the eighties because that was the fifties. Now everyone now
everyone wants penny rounds again. No one wants pink or
blue tile because that was a fifth. Now everyone's sick
of white and they want pink and blue tiles and
so it's but they want pastel versions. They want this version,
(28:20):
and you know you can get there's millions of different colors,
and so once you land on one that people resonate with,
it works. Bell Bottoms came back, so I see it
on ladies today, they're wearing Bell bottoms. It's uh, it's wild.
But it's That's why I can say tile is fashion
and it's still People shake their head and I go, no,
it's real.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
You're right. Kabloma, CEO Tile Shop, thanks for being
Speaker 2 (28:44):
Here, absolutely, thanks for having me
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