Kristi: In Archbold, Ohio.

There was once a family owne company named Souder Woodworking that made ready to assemble furniture.

Today, that 90 year old company Souder, has changed a great deal and continues to stay competitive with some of the largest furniture makers across the globe.

Joining me now on Business Live 360 is Nolan Pike, the new CEO at Souder Nolan.

So great to have you on business live 3060.

Welcome.

Nolan Pike: Nice to be here, Kristi.

Kristi You have a background in product development and innovation.

Tell our audience more about the industry from which you came, as well as your background.

Nolan Pike: Thanks, Kristi.

I spent 35 years in the appliance industry.

So I started in 1989 with GE appliances and spent 20 years there.

I started on that sales side of the business to kind of work my way up, really from an inside sales rep.

But during that journey, I just really fell in love with appliances, and I transitioned kind of midway through my career into more product and product development.

So leading some some key customers like Home Depot or Sears, but also running some product lines like monogram.

The the next five years I went to Sears.

At the time, Sears was the largest client cut company in the US, so I ran home appliances for Sears and I got to lead the Kenmore product line, which was the largest appliance brands.

This.

This was a great experience for me, and it really kind of solidified my love of product and product development.

And I got to know a company called Electrolux, and a lot of people thin Electrolux is a vacuum cleaner, but it's also Frigidaire appliances.

So I spent ten, ten years in Electrolux, all in the product side by development around cooking and refrigeration and did that for North America.

And I did it globally.

Coming back the last the last three years as CEO of North America, and that was about a $5 billion appliance business selling through appliances to companies like, we need to own a lot of those and Best Buy an independent dealer.

So great experience around consumer products.

So not in the furniture business, not in the cabinet business, but certainly around it with with customers.

So both influences that went in cabinet.

So I was kind of an outsider looking in this industry, but it felt pretty familiar because pretty important parts of consumers lives.

Kristi: Now what is the size and the scope of Souder in terms of sales and geographic reach today?

Nolan Pike So our primary markets are U.S. and Canada.

That's where we sell extend a little bit internationally in the past.

And it's about a $600 million business divided between a lot of specialty markets that serve others like worshi or education, hospital furniture and then our traditional business, we invented ready to assembl furniture even before a kiosk.

This is about half of our business.

And then the rest of the busines Speaking of Ikea with a lot of Ikea product and have a great partnership.

Kristi: And that's so well put.

And it really is no surprise that the furniture industry has been hit by competition sales disruption through the years.

But how has that or been able to pivot and truly sustain sales, even achieve growth maintain competitive advantage through all of the years and all the change?

Nolan Pike: There's been three CEOs in nine years.

So not.

Not a lot of leaders.

And our first CEO, Eri, was an innovator, invented a lot of things pretty ready to assemble furniture.

And then Maynard and his brother Merrill, they scaled this business in the innovated furniture as we know it.

They enabled us to rebuild furniture in markets that didn't have furniture stores or fully assembled.

And Kevin diversified.

And I think the key for us is diversification of the business and, and and making a business and defining your market bigger so we can scale.

Kristi: So I said diversification equals viability in this new world of furniture with the IKEA's and the Walmarts etc.. Would that be true?

Nolan Pike: Well I think we have to define it bigger than furniture neglected and cabinets, closets, things that make a difference in a consumer's home one.

Leverage our proximity in the US manufacturing base at 4.5 million square feet of factories here in Archbold, Ohio, and then some factories in Fort Wayne and some others in our manufacturing business that leverages our proximity, leverages our scale and what we do well.

We build ready to assemble furniture and a cabinet that is a lot like ready to assemble furniture in some cases with it's assembled.

So we have to leverage what we do well with the consumer.

We know that we know the North American consumer.

We've been in their homes for 90 years.

So how they store and organize in great room is the same thing in the kitchen.

Accessibility.

They want convenience and they want more capacity in the same space.

A lot of the same things.

And so it's doing what we do well, scaling it to solve consumers problems.

Consumers that we know better than the competitors who a lot of.

Kristi: Specifically defin some of the new and successful soda products that are on the market now, and how they have evolve and have become more innovative, if you will, for the consumer.

Nolan Pike: Right now.

I think some of the innovations in the past, like the microwave cart or the computer desk, we've adapted how the consumer has adapted.

What we're trying to do now, we continue to see style and personal personalization in a furniture side and our cabinet side.

What we're trying to do.

We d what's called a frameless tech.

What it means to the consume is better access to more space.

So this organizatio for consumers is not about about a bunch of gadgets.

It's about let me store more things.

Everybody's first in your kitchen floor, so give me more space and then get out of my way so I can store things the way I want to start this accessibility organization.

That's what we've done.

So when we leverag that, consumers are delighted.

And we have these new platforms like your closet or is that a space in the kitchen and a space in the kitchen just leverages that capability that we can scale not just from a manufacturing, but from a consumer desire.

More space.

Kristi: We can't wait to hear more about your success.

Thanks for being at Business Life 360 Nolan Pike.

Nolan Pike: Thank you.