Celebrating tremendous growth built on the values and vision of its founder, Al & Sons Millwork, Inc. is a producer of interior doors, exterior entry doors, hardware, and accessories. At home in Belleview, Florida, the company turned the old-time values it built its reputation on into modern-day policies that guide its future daily.
As a business-to-business supply firm, Al & Sons Millwork primarily serves contractors in new construction, with a team of 34 industry experts. Thanks to the dedication of its people, the company is reaching heights no one thought possible.
As a third-generation family-owned, employee-driven firm, Al & Sons Millwork is proud to be a fine employer of excellent individuals. Firmly rooted in the understanding that its team cares for its clients, the company’s leadership ensures that staff are genuinely well taken care of. Here, developing the people that make the business happen is paramount to doing good business.
“We offer staff things that are unattainable in the corporate world,” says Marc Madore, Director of Operations, describing the perks employees benefit from. As part of the legacy of care established by Al and Becky Madore in 1978, these include a range of regular nice-to-haves, from mid-summer profit shares paid just before the schools reopen, to personalized Christmas gifts from ownership given as a heartfelt gesture of appreciation, to adaptable, flexible schedules that help staff balance work with their personal lives.
“We have small things in place that make people’s lives a little easier. And it’s those small things they appreciate and help us keep those great people,” Madore adds.
Having worked his way through every position in the company since the age of 16, Madore understands the work volumes and challenges that come with each position. As a result, he holds the utmost respect for his employees. Alongside those in the field, he is equally proud of the company’s phenomenal leadership team. “I have full respect for the guys that learn, who stick with it and stay with us,” he says, smiling at an in-house joke about survival of the first year resulting in adoption.
And, in a place like Florida where extreme weather conditions can make working conditions challenging, passing the test and remaining here for an entire working life has handsome benefits for all involved as knowledge is retained and passed down from one generation to the next. The positive aspects of having such a close-knit team are many. By creating true camaraderie, a sense of togetherness feeds the positive attitude people bring to work with them every day.
While it’s rare to find companies highly recommended online by former staff, this firm’s star could not shine any brighter, with one recent former employee describing his time working at Al & Sons Millwork as some of his “sweetest times” in North Florida—a wonderful testimony to a wholesome company culture if ever there was one.
This sense of warmth that people share here also extends to the company’s business relationships. “We treat our customers like we’re in a business relationship. We’re here to take care of them to the full extent of our abilities,” Madore says, reminding us that the team is committed to satisfying customers, whatever it takes.
And that’s not just talk. Four inspections throughout each project’s lifecycle, alongside daily attention to detail, keep quality control in check and the team on schedule. In addition, diligent quantity and quality management ensures lean processes and optimal productivity. As a result, customers get what is agreed to, with the company’s exacting standards saving time and money along the way. The company doesn’t cut corners but rather balances budgets by investing in quality built to last, and this has become the mainstay of its reputation for excellence.
“We don’t allow price to drive our quality; quality drives our price,” Madore says. And the company’s value proposition comes complete with a premium level of service.
Serving customers across 10 of Florida’s 67 counties, while focusing on the North Central counties of Marion, Lake, Citrus, Orange, and others, Al & Sons partners with the most trusted names in the industry to deliver premium doors and accessories that make any project owner a happy owner. With its exquisite attention to detail and superb craftsmanship, it’s easy to see why its work is in such high demand.
Another major plus for contractor clients is that collaborating with Al & Sons Millwork provides them with a “hands-free” experience, as they know that whatever project the team executes will be undertaken to the highest standards possible, without needing their hands held.
The company has come a long way from the single-garage days to the 30,000-square-foot facility it calls home today. As an early adopter of technology, Al & Sons made its way into the news when it owned one of the first horizontal automated door machines in the United States in 2001, which was joined by a second two years later. Yet, while its continuous investment in technology keeps its output high and its facility in step with the industry, there is no replacement for personal expertise. Maintaining quality control with the help of the human eye of its artisans remains imperative to Al & Sons’ ongoing success.
Catapulting itself from $100,000 in annual sales from its single-garage storage facility and two or three people when it started, to a new, significantly larger footprint 16 years later, the company’s focus has been unwavering since the start.
By 1995, the company occupied a 15,000-square-foot facility and did between three and four million dollars in sales annually. Over the next decade, it grew its annual income by 500 percent. Surviving the recession, it turned a new corner in 2013, when its trajectory took on the shape it is in today of secure and steady expansion.
In an industry that reached $16.3 billion in value this year on the back of just over 880 door businesses—down about two percent from previous research done in 2019—it’s clear that Al & Sons Millwork and its team makes a significant contribution to the U.S. door supply industry every year. According to IBISWorld’s Chris DellaCamera, the entire industry in the U.S. has around 54,000 employees, adding further weight to the numbers the company has achieved over its lifetime. And as the need for apartments and single- and multi-family homes increases with the expanding population of North Central Florida, the company clearly revels in growing its output volumes.
Continuing to help grow the country’s gross domestic product, Al & Sons’ vision is big. It looks forward to establishing another next-generation door shop to add to its existing output. “Our goals should be easily obtainable to make us a forever company,” Madore says.
Based on rock-solid core values and great concern for the well-being of its people, partnered with acute business acumen, Al & Sons Millwork now looks forward to BIG FUTURE GOALS—including the idea of a state of the art, climate-controlled facility with possible output of 400 percent over its current production. And with this team, they will undoubtedly make it look easy.
