Ashland, AL—Two kitchen cabinet firms based in Ashland, AL—Tru Cabinetry and Wellborn Cabinets—made news just as IWF 2022 kicked off last month, one building a $17 million dollar greenfield plant in Oxford, AL, the other shutting down.
Tru-Wood Cabinet Company announced in August that it would permanently close its 370,000-square-foot Ashland, AL plant, laying off all employees. Operating under the Tru Cabinetry brand, with a workforce numbering 260, the firm had recently updated machining and finishing lines, hiring to grow capacity 20 percent.
Its much larger neighbor Wellborn Cabinets just last year launched a $15 million expansion project that created over 200 jobs at its Ashland site. Wellborn put in a planer mill and a paint facility with four new buildings added to its Ashland complex, growing its total size to 2.2 million square feet. Now the family-run business is adding even more capacity.
Tru Cabinetry has been owned since 2013 by Building Industry Partners, an investment group, and is part of a United Cabinet Holdings business unit. Equity investors Building Industry Partners’ portfolio includes United Cabinet Holdings, formed in 2012 to pursue acquisitions within the kitchen and bath cabinetry sector. United Cabinet acquired Touchstone Fine Cabinetry in 2012 (sold in 2018 to Precision Cabinets), and acquired Tru Cabinetry in 2013. It has pursued many building materials acquisitions, but its cabinetry business is hollowed out with the closure of Tru Cabinetry.
