for them,” Dave says. “We wrote letters, we got in touch with government officials, and within days the decision was overturned and they were deemed essential.” During the same period, some of the company’s other suppliers similarly went above and beyond for them. As an example of that, Dave cites their long-term supplier Häfele – a global market leader in providing hardware solutions to the kitchen cabinet industry and architectural millwork industry, among other industries. During what Dave calls “the depths of COVID, when steel was hard to get and supply chains were broken and lead times were through the roof,” Häfele air-freighted the company stock at their own expense to make sure AyA Kitchens could stay up and running. Moving forward, Dave says that the company’s goal is to continue fostering those kinds of relationships with suppliers. In collaboration with those partners – and in collaboration with their clients and employees – their goal is also to continue growing the company, and continue refining the mass customization offering that makes them so special. “Our objective is not unfettered growth,” he says. “It’s sustainable growth, and growth within our core competency of mass customization. We’re going to continue to invest and reinvest in new technology, and we are going to offer even more customization than we’ve been able to in the past. I believe that customization is really where nobody can touch us.” “We can do a multi-family project where there are four colour patterns and every unit picks A, B, C or D. We do a lot of those projects. We do that very well. We just have a lot of competitors who can also do that well. But we can also do the very sophisticated, highly customized projects, and we can do them in volume at a very good price. That’s a lot more difficult, and that’s where we really shine – and we’re investing in new technology all the time in order to stay at the absolutely forefront of that market.” MAY 2023
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