Mainebiz Special Editions

V O L . X X I V N O. X V I 66 FA C T BO O K / D O I N G B U S I N E S S I N M A I N E furniture in the U.S. successfully. But his most important legacy may be the tens or hundreds of thousands of pieces of furniture that will remain in use in people's homes for generations to come. If every piece of furniture is a prescription for the life to be lived around it, as I maintain, then Moser's furniture will continue to advocate for the Shaker-related values of living with simplicity, integrity and grace." Not everyone in Maine may appreci- ate that Moser is a national brand, with six stores mostly on the eastern seaboard and a client list of CEOs and statesmen. "A prophet scorned in our own land," Aaron Moser says of his dad. os. Moser does not disclose its sales fi gures, but in story in Mainebiz in 2014, the company said it had sales approaching $20 million. ere's a notion, Aaron Moser acknowledged, that the furniture is out of the reach of the average buyer. It's not uncommon for a chest of drawers to cost $6,000 to $10,000 or for a stool to be $1,000. " ere's a myth that Moser is not aff ordable. Our hourly rate is like a body shop. It just takes more hours to build [the furniture]," Moser says in response. Moser's furniture is in the George W. Bush Library in Dallas; Grace Farms, a nonprofi t with innovative Japanese architecture in New Canaan, Conn.; and the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia. But the bulk of its larger customers are institutions like university libraries or an MIT sci- ence lab, corporations and law fi rms. "We make 40-foot conference tables," Moser says. Moser has instituted "lean" build- ing techniques. Instead of stockpiling inventory, it builds much of the furni- ture after it has been ordered, saving on warehousing. "At one point, we had $1 million in inventory sitting on the shelves. We went to lean manufacturing. Build one at a time. With technology and CNC machines," he says. In some ways the company remains old-school. e wood, often cherry from the Allegheny plateau, goes from the planer to the CNC machine to the woodworker to the fi nishing process, and, once completed, sits near a loading dock. It will be carefully wrapped. Some of the furniture is shipped, but the com- pany also makes "milk runs," personally delivering furniture to buyers. "We're challenging the conven- tional ways. Everyone gives advice. If you want to do furniture go to High Point, N.C. Beliefs are always chang- ing," Moser says, adding that the company remains independent and unconventional. "We have customers who enjoy Moser. We're feisty. We're entrepreneurial. We're hungry." Customers come to Moser for quality, for aesthetic reasons. "Our quality is the best it has been. Signature has a lot to do with it. Lean manufacturing. It wasn't Tom Moser that did that," Aaron Moser says. A typical customer is 55 to 70 years old, with six years of higher education. "It's been fairly consistent and that's the problem," he says. To broaden the market, the company is not looking so much to younger cus- tomers as larger customers — institu- tions and corporations. Moser is building out relation- ships, with individual customers and institutions. e company is doing more business-to-business and trade work — relationships can mean $250,000 in sales on the institutional side versus $4,000 from a typical indi- vidual customer. With retailer L.L.Bean, os. Moser produced fi ve hand-built fl y- tying desks, made with American black cherry and featuring dovetailed drawers, with a price tag of $12,000. "With L.L.Bean, it's two iconic brands. We don't want to get into making $12,000 fl y-fi shing desks. It's more about storytelling. It's a platform to get the story out there," Moser says, adding that at that time they'd sold three. P V A , M a i n e b i z e d i to r, c a n be r e a ch e d a t @ . and @ ME » C O N T I N U E D F RO M P R E V I O U S PA G E I N N OVAT I O N / R & D P H O T O S / F R E D F I E L D Craftsman Jim Wisser with a rotating clamp carrier at Thos. Moser Handmade American Furniture in Auburn. The company uses machinery to get wood into shape for the craftsmen. Then the handcrafting begins. President and CEO Aaron Moser says the quality of the furniture depends on the quality of wood it buys from a small network of trusted suppliers. We're challenging the We're challenging the We're challenging the We're challenging the We're challenging the We're challenging the We're challenging the We're challenging the We're challenging the We're challenging the We're challenging the We're challenging the We're challenging the We're challenging the conventional ways. conventional ways. conventional ways. conventional ways. conventional ways. conventional ways. conventional ways. conventional ways. conventional ways. conventional ways. conventional ways. conventional ways. conventional ways. — Aaron Moser Thos. Moser Handmade American Furniture

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