Stairtek: Revolutionizing the Stair Industry

Stairtek, the tri-state's premiere unfinished and finished stair part manufacturer, has a "roll-up the sleeves and get it done," mentality. At AMEND, we share the same grit, but know that applying the right processes can expedite many of the headaches.

We decided to come alongside Stairtek so they can achieve growth potential in the market. Backed by AMEND Ventures and AMEND Consulting, we are able to allocate the right resources, processes, and systems to take Stairtek to the next level.

About Stairtek

Stairtek was established in 2005 by the Schumacher family. With nearly 100 years of combined experience, Ken, Carolyn, and Jay recognized the industries need for Prefinished Stair Treads to go along with the trend of Prefinished flooring.

Stairtek has grown to a multi-million dollar operation of distributing small custom orders to large truckload orders. With their facilities in Erlanger, Kentucky Stairtek is able to ship unfinished and prefinished stair parts to their customers across the country.

AMEND x Stairtek

Two of the three owners were looking to retire. They knew that they wanted the company to stay local, while maintaining the strong cultural foundation. When the opportunity presented itself, the Stairtek founders knew their business would be in good hands with AMEND.

In October 2018, AMEND acquired a majority share of Stairtek, alongside Cincinnati Investment firm RKCA.

Critical Areas for Growth

With the AMEND Consulting team backing the deal, we are activily using our management consulting and analytics expertise to bring our investments to the next level.

In just a few short months, we have already made the following impacts:

Supply Chain

By treating our suppliers as partners, we're actively working on cutting lead times in half and finding cost-saving opportunities.

Warehouse Optimization

Our team completely redeveloped the warehouse to optimize for storage, flow, and storage utilization.

Shop Floor Integration

We studied how materials flowed throughout the shop, then identified ways to improve efficiency. Through 5S, job kanban (staging lane creation), and SOP implementation, the shop departments now run more efficiently.

Frontline Leadership

Our team stepped into an interim controller role to put Stairtek on a path towards financial success. We were able to quickly backfill quality full-time resources to get the business out of backlog, including CEO, Dir. of Operations, production manager, and interim department leads.

Added Value (post-investment)

20%

Lamination Line Throughput

(within 8-10 weeks)

100%

Completely Redesigned Warehouse