Founded in 1991 and headquartered in Lethbridge, Alberta, Braman Furniture started in a 15,000-square-foot factory that included office space and six employees.

Not many companies would open a manufacturing facility after 9/11 until the market stabilized and companies could be sure there would be sales. But that's exactly what Braman Furniture did, in Morden, Manitoba, Canada. "Most manufacturing companies went offshore, but we [believed, and still] believe there is a niche out there for us and that we can compete with offshore competition," Director of Hospitality Brad Winsor says.

Each line of Braman furniture for the hospitality and healthcare sectors has a "good, better or best option," Winsor says, which gives customers more options for a custom-made piece of furniture. "Our niche is our flexibility," he says. "We don't build an inventory, we build what our customers want. We take what our customer wants and build it to match the rest of the line.

"We can redevelop any one of our lines to meet any specific needs, and we constantly continue to grow when other companies leave and take their business to China," Winsor adds.

Founded in 1991 and headquartered in Lethbridge, Alberta, Braman Furniture started in a 15,000-square-foot factory that included office space and six employees. Today, a little more than 15 years later, the company has five factories, more than 300 employees and serves customers in various countries, including the United States, Canada, Saudi Arabia and Japan.

Braman Furniture focuses on both case good and upholstery products. "We're in the midst of rapidly expanding our upholstery division," Winsor says. "Ninety percent of Braman Furniture's customers order furniture from its hospitality division. Just last year, we started a healthcare and dormitory division, catering to assisted living environments for the elderly and universities.

"We're aiming to triple the size of our catalog with updated styles, such as different coffee tables in metal, granite and wood, as well as ramp up the sizes," Winsor adds. "We're about to add 12 new styles. Right now, we have about 25 or 30 styles of chairs and 15 of sofa beds, and we'll add a whole section devoted to specialty furniture." Braman Furniture has always grown as its client base has grown and says it will look to expand even more in the next three to five years.

Braman Furniture is also beginning to branch into the bathroom sector of the market. Winsor says Braman Furniture distinguishes itself from competitors with "service, [a] flexible niche and consistently high level of quality every stop along the way in our facilities."

Commanding Attention
When people think of the U.S. Air Force, its lodging is not what comes to mind. Just last year, however, the Air Force decided to revamp its lodging division and upgrade all its rooms to a more mainstream look to better represent what the hotel industry is doing, Winsor says. Last November, Braman Furniture attended the Air Force show in New York City, where several design firms and furniture companies designed themed rooms and furniture for the Air Force, and the Air Force chose winners for each of the styles of rooms. This is the first time the company has worked with the military.

"The Air Force put a bid out on six different themed rooms: South Pacific, mission, contemporary, traditional, modern and transitional," Winsor says. "They were looking for different styles for hotels. If they have a lodge in Hawaii, they might go for an Asian Pacific look vs. if they're on a naval base on the East Coast in New England, they might go with a contemporary or traditional-style room. "With six themes, they covered [styles] across the board."

Getting Stronger
In the future, Braman Furniture will continue to grow and expand its divisions, Winsor says. "With certain things in the industry, like what happened after 9/11 when manufacturing went offshore and the rise in the dollar was 35 percent, all those things are little bumps in the road," he says. "Braman Furniture worked through those and became a stronger, better-developed company that's always continued to grow."