Microvellum Corporation

Dras Makes its Case


		Article Written by: Jackie Roembke

When the onset of large discount stores shifted the presentation of retail items to self-serve merchandising, Dean Rasmusson noticed that many store fixture manufacturers dropped their showcase lines.

Rasmusson, who had worked in the store fixture business for over two decades, felt there was a shortage of suppliers for the retailers who still needed the glass showcases.

This demand prompted him to create his own company, one that would manufacture a line of economy showcases. He founded DRAS Cases in 1994.

“I had always been thinking of going into business for myself and 23 years was enough time to work for one company,” Rasmusson explains. “I felt that there was a need for another company building a stock line of glass showcases.” Rasmusson purchased an 8,000-sq.-ft. building on 2 ½ acres of land — giving him ample room for future expansion.

“The company was a complete start-up,” Rasmusson explains. “I didn’t buy an existing woodworking company so everything had to be purchased or leased before I could get started — and no accounts came with me from my previous employer.” With no client list and no reputation, Rasmusson found himself in need of a very strong sales force. The problem? Rasmusson, a self-proclaimed “manufacturing type,” knew marketing was not his forte.

Luckily, Rasmusson had a secret weapon — his daughter, Amy (Peterson).

“Amy is a people person,” Rasmusson says. “When she completed college and wanted to work in the new business, I was happy to have her. I knew that Amy had that sales instinct and could handle that end of the business.”

“I think the strength between my dad and me is that we are so different.” Peterson says. “It’s been a great fit, and he has put a lot of trust in my decision making.”

According to Peterson, the secret to her success is persistence. “When you are starting from scratch, many clients were hesitant to come onboard, but once they were, they became as dedicated to us as we are to them.”

Making it Happen

Although the ultimate goal was to produce an economy showcase line, DRAS rooted itself in the industry with the success of its custom work.

“The stock showcase took longer than anticipated to get rolling, and bills had to be paid, so we started taking custom jobs to keep the business financed,” Rasmusson says. “All of the custom work done at DRAS is commercial casework; most of the work is high pressure laminate. The custom end of the business grew very quickly. Within a few years the custom projects were bringing in $500,000.”

With Peterson growing the custom business and fostering important relationships — and Rasmusson and the DRAS team delivering a high-quality product — DRAS eventually found success in its stock line.

“All along [Dean] was very courageous in making his idea a reality, and I don’t think he has given himself enough credit,” Peterson says. “He believed in a product, believed there was a market for the product — and did it even though he initially didn’t have a customer waiting to buy it.”

After about four years of establishing itself, DRAS found a group of distributors that didn’t carry showcases or cash stands in its product offering. After several months of negotiations, one of these distributors agreed to offer the DRAS line of stock cases in its quarterly promotional catalog, one that mailed throughout North America. This gave DRAS the exposure it needed and aided in building its reputation among the other distributors.

Custom work for general contractors involves a lot in the medical field. Pictured is a custom reception desk for a pediatric dental clinic.

Dean Rasmusson and Travis Hauser

DRAS Cases’ president Dean Rasmusson, right, and its plant manager Travis Hauser discuss a project.

Custom Retail Fixtures

Custom retail fixtures, as shown in the optical store, can consist of veneered exteriors, glass shelves suspended on cables with mirrored interiors and high-end lighting.

Beam Saw and Point-to-Point Machine

Both the beam saw and point-to-point machine are run on a two-shift operation.

DRAS offers a complete line of modular showcases in two styles, the basic stock showcase and the three-sided showcase that has glass ends. Showcases come in three modular lengths and two depths and can all be ordered in four different heights of front glass. It also offers a modified stock option. All of the exterior glass on cases is tempered.

The stock line of cases totals 105 different units, and all can have a variety of options added to them, including lights, locks, mirrored interiors, casters and high pressure laminate exteriors. All units are offered in eight stock colors, four solid colors and four wood grains.

In addition to the showcase DRAS offers checkout counters, wrap counters, register stands, reservation stands, convenience counter, tiered merchandising tables and dump tables.

A portion of DRAS’ volume is shipped as packaged knock-down units, a proprietary unit for one customer.

Volume on these units totals a semi load every two weeks. This operation gives DRAS another capability to offer its current and prospective customers.

The stock line of casework accounts now creates 70 percent of DRAS’ sales volume.

DRAS Today

In the last 12 years the DRAS facilities have been expanded twice, bringing the building to a current total 24,000 sq. ft. The company has 31 employees — four of these employees work the night shift four days a week, Monday through Thursday from 9 p.m.-7:30 a.m. The night shift was started three years ago to allow for more machining time because of increasing production volumes.

“By scheduling our night shift in 10-hour, four-day blocks, workers get to spend more time with their families making this a more salable option to get people to work that shift,” Rasmusson notes.

In its plant, DRAS is currently using a SCMI sigma 65 beam saw, a Biesse Rover 24 point-to-point machine, a Holz-Her 1416 edgebander, a Holz-Her sliding table saw and two Powermatic table saws. In the future, Rasmusson plans to buy another 12-ft. saw that can cut five to six sheets to increase productivity.

Driving Design

“On the custom side of the business, design is always customer driven,” Rasmusson says. “Normally customers employ architects and/or store designers to design there facilities.”

DRAS provides shop drawings to clarify construction and coordinate other issues of production. To help DRAS turn these more quickly, it recently purchased Microvellum software.

DRAS is using the drafting portion of the program now and is finding the product library a big time saver when making its shop drawings. The rendering portion is a big help in making customer presentations.

“Design is a service that we offer to our customers, and it is especially valuable to our fixture distributors who normally do not have CAD software in their offices,” Rasmusson says. “A 3-D drawing of multiple units put together as they would appear in someone’s retail store can be a huge selling tool.”

DRAS Values

DRAS values flexibility, short lead times and customer service.

Flexibility comes from having both custom and stock offerings. With the volume of stock items it produces, DRAS has a large inventory of raw materials on hand — roughly 4,000 sq. ft. of materials stacked four racks high (16,000 sq. ft.) — to turn custom jobs around quickly. The custom area also allows DRAS the capability to modify stock products to the customer’s wishes.

DRAS’ large inventory has allowed it to stay competitive when bidding custom jobs. Since DRAS buys large volumes of, for example, tempered glass, the company has the advantage of delivering on the product weeks before another company (without a glass inventory) could.

Normal lead time on a stock product is two weeks.

“When our customers have a problem with an order, DRAS prides itself on fast reaction to the problem,” Rasmusson says.

“For example, the customer service department has been instructed that if an order gets damaged in shipment, they should ship a replacement immediately,” he says. “Don’t worry about who is filing what claims and who should or will be responsible for the replacement cost — get our distributor’s customer up and running!”

DRAS is an AWI premium-grade certified manufacturer.

DRAS Cases

Year established: 1994
Location: Lake Mills, Iowa
Products: Store fixtures
Market area: National
Facility size: 24,000 sq. ft.
Employees: 31
President: Dean Rasmusson
Yearly sales volume: $2.5 million

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