Viewrail and Stair Supplies

From a numbers perspective, our business has doubled. Our staff has doubled [since the start of the pandemic].

As I look back at that time, it’s crazy. It’s a blur. And it was inspiring. It was just people coming together and really, really working hard.

From a qualitative ability to perform, 2021 has been the best we’ve ever had in terms of service to the customer. We were able to maintain a ten-business-day lead time through all of 2021, and in building materials — to provide and manufacture custom products and do it in ten days — is pretty remarkable. To do it during the shortages of the pandemic is just incredible. That was a major challenge we rose to, and I don’t think we’re ever going to go back to having a longer lead time than ten days.

That’s been a significant change.

We’ve also dumped a ton of effort into software. Our software team has really taken Autodesk to the next level of design.

We saw people just pour into this business and really make a commitment to it. It’s been wild, it’s been fun, and a lot of people’s careers have been made during the most difficult time for a supply chain since probably World War II.

It really caused us to go through this fire and I think our team came out tested and stronger.

There’s a feeling in Goshen we don’t think we would get somewhere else. When people from around the country come in and tour our facility they say, ‘There’s something special about your culture, something special about what you’re doing.’ And while I think we’ve worked really hard on our work culture, I don’t think we can take that out of context. I’m not sure we could have built this in a different context, in a different city, in a different location, in a different town.

I think the combination of what we want to do and what the Goshen culture — or work ethic — is, come together and allow us to make something really special in this town.

What we hope to give back is a long view of value to the community by providing jobs that have a great work-life balance, that have a great opportunity for a person to take their skills as far as they want to go. For a place where mom and dad come to work and go home having positive interactions all day long, so they can come home and have positive interactions [there].

— Len Morris, founder and CEO, Viewrail and Stair Supplies