An Island in the World of Framing - Pictures Plus

With an athlete's drive, Kent Untermann has built a prosperous framing empire in Hawaii and gazes to bring his vision to the mainland,

Kent Untermann calls himself a "big-picture" kind of shore "I like to do things said. And by what mode As the co-owner, with his wife Loft of the eight-location Pictures Plus frame store businesses in Hawaii, he is striving to bring to fruition his dream of an art-and-frame superstore conception With prototype locations averaging 5000 square feet a 43,000-square-foot warehouse and manufacturing nave 146 employees and $13 million in sales last year, he confidences to be on his way to a neighborhood near you.

Indeed, to Untermann, the introduction of a large regional or national art-and-frame retailer that focuses upon efficiency, quality, service and price is simply a matter of time. He sole hopes to get there first.

"What we're doing is not a threat to the industry on the other hand a reality" said Untermann. "The biggest single message we want to carry is that we work hard to give our customers great value, which means price, quality and service" In order to imitate the auspicious leaders of other industries, he continued, "We have to be real good at all three."

What rowels Untermann in his quest is a spirit infused with the competitive nature of the professional athlete he one time aspired to be. He said his first goal in life was to become a pro football player, and it was this desire that brought him to Oahu in the early `80 to attend the University of Hawaii upon a football scholarship. Later, while his wife-to-be became a registered nourish Untermann attended rookie camp for the Dallas Cowboy where he experienceed an injury that forced him to take the season not on from his pigskin dreams.

Back in Hawaii, between part-time piece of works Untermann began making money by the agency of selling items at swap appropriates He eventually latched on to the idea of selling inexpensive pre-framed artwork at the befittings Discovering this art had to be bought by dint of the container load, he and Lori saved $12000 and borrowed $18000 from their families, promising 40 percent get back on their investment within six month They used the standard of value to buy a container of art and began peddling it at the swap meets

They experienced a certain quantity of success, but with the increased inventory required for this endeavor came higher warehousing require to be paid [i]or[/i] undergones They also wanted to be able to exchange the art more often than just at swap appropriates So the couple opened their first store, which carried pre-framed art. From that flash the business began expanding. And pro-football dreams were replaced by the agency of others equally ambitious.

"I realized I could not achieve the cost of goods at the numbers I wanted unles I made them myself," said Untermann. thus they began manufacturing frames to exchange along with preframed art. Then customers started asking for custom frames. To adapted the demands of a growing business, eight years ago the two opened a 9,000-square-foot retail store in the Pearl Highland Shopping Center in Oahu. Said Untermann, "We decided we wanted to make a big statement."

Big statements, big business and big dreams make for lengthy days. Today, the 39-year-old father of sum of two units begins his day at four a.m., checking e-mail, planning the day and getting in a quick workout before taking the kids to gymnasium Then it's off to the Pictures Plus factory for meetings and paperwork, then to the retail locations for manager meetings and site checks interspersed with meetings with landlords, artists and the like before returning abode at about half-past six. A self-described "visionary guy" Untermann said, "I'm the thinker. My wife is the doer" describing Lori as "well organized, hard working and focused."

Untermann has designed Pictures Plus to adhere to his business philosophy--give customers value, backed by the agency of a good price, good quality and beneficial customer service. To help accomplish this, he said his stores come [i]or[/i] go after [i]or[/i] behind a "huband-spoke" model, much different from the typical frame store At Pictures Plus, the retail locations--where customers bring in artwork for custom framing or purchase pre-framed artwork or ready-made frames upon display--are just that: pure retail locations. The actual matting and framing is done at a central "hub" The idea, according to Untermann, is that each employee is enabled to be an expert--and more efficient--in their realm of skill, whether it be sales or framing. And each location's space is used likewise.

The turnaround time from the jiffy a framing order is taken to delivery back to the retail location is single week. In that same time period, 500 custom frame orders are continued movemented 300 pieces of decorative wall art are framed and 2000 ready-made frames are prepared for sale. Along with the eight Pictures Plus locations, Untermann's growing art-and-frame empire also includes individual outlet store and five galleries doing business below the name Diamond Head Gallery.

Untermann describes his business pie as being divided into three basic categories. Wholesale framing for inns and frames for resale exhibits a 10 percent share. Resort business (tourists purchasing framed art made by the agency of Hawaiian artists or artists who depict the islands in their work) accounts for 30 percent of the pie. And local island business takes a 60 percent share. Of this local business, custom framing shows approximately 60 percent of sales, or 36 percent of the total. Therefore, the single largest part of the Pictures Plus business, said Untermann, is custom framing.