When Martin and Silvia Enriquez launched Enriquez Materials & Quilting Inc. in her father’s garage 20 years ago, they were certain of only two things. First, they wanted to create a one–stop shop for mattress components. Second, they were committed to offering only the highest–quality products and unsurpassed service to their customers.
Today, the company that started with one used quilting machine and a pickup truck for deliveries serves about 500 mattress manufacturers in the United States, Mexico and Central America. It has 100 employees in three manufacturing facilities. And that pickup truck has been replaced by a fleet of nearly two dozen tractor–trailers and bobtails.
“My husband was always entrepreneurial. When we were dating, all we talked about was starting our own business,” says Silvia, co–owner and vice president of the company, which has headquarters in Commerce, Calif.
Enriquez Materials & Quilting is aptly named. It specializes in supplying quilting services and mattress kits to bedding manufacturers, as well as a wide array of mattress components—innersprings, foam toppers, insulator pads, hog rings, fabrics, tape, thread, bed frames, corner guards, adhesives and more.
Martin Enriquez and his wife, Silvia (not shown), built their business together. About 70% of their workers are members of their extended family.
Always on the move
Before going out on his own, Martin worked for 10 years for a quilting company in El Monte, Calif. There, he learned how to run equipment, make repairs and do deliveries. When he began—on his own initiative—to bring quilting business to the company from contacts he made at flea markets, he was offered a sales position, but with no raise to his $8–an–hour wage. That, Silvia says, was all it took to turn Martin’s dream of starting their own business into a reality.
Martin began by buying damaged mattress panels from Sealy and Spring Air, which he then repaired and sold to smaller mattress manufacturers. He quickly expanded the business by offering prequilted fabrics.
“Everyone was doing quilting,” he says. “We were the first to offer quilted fabric to our customers to better serve them.”
They worked out of Silvia’s father’s garage until 1993 when a neighbor’s complaints forced them to find new space. By the end of that year, they had moved two more times, finally ending up with 5,000 square feet of manufacturing space.
“The problem with quilting is that it takes up a lot of floor space,” Silvia says. “We kept outgrowing the buildings.”
The company’s rapid growth was fueled by entrepreneurial zeal.
“We worked around the clock,” she says. “We worked at night to build stock and then spent the next day selling and delivering it.”
Seven years and multiple moves later, Enriquez Materials & Quilting settled into a 25,000–square–foot facility in Commerce.
“When we went to 25,000 square feet, our sales doubled from $8 million to almost $16 million. Our growth came from a lot of hard work and, on my part, a lot of tears,” Silvia says. “Times were tough. When customers went bankrupt, we had a hard time paying our bills. Our suppliers wanted immediate payment and we had to hope that our customers would pay on time and pay with good checks. Cash flow was always an issue and it was a huge strain.”
Although the company remained headquartered in Commerce, it moved two more times before finally settling into a new 200,000–square–foot facility in June. It also operates two 35,000–square–foot manufacturing and distribution centers in Phoenix and Stockton, Calif.
Continued expansion and reinvestment have paid significant dividends. In 2010, the company posted annual sales of about $26 million, which Silvia says, is “a $3 million improvement over 2009.” She projects that sales will post gains this year, too.
After many moves, the company recently settled into a 200,000 square–foot headquarters facility in Commerce, Calif.
Family affair
Although entrepreneurial passion has played a large role in driving the growth of Enriquez Materials & Quilting, it has not been the only factor. Both Martin and Silvia are acutely aware of how many people depend upon the success of their business for their livelihoods. Approximately 70% of the company’s employees are part of their extended family. And, according to sales manager Jorge Sifuentes, the other 30% might as well be.
“This really is a family–operated business. If you’re not actually family, you feel as if you’ve been adopted into it,” says Sifuentes, who has been with the company for 15 years. “The family atmosphere makes working here pretty easy. Everyone cares and everyone is very proud of the work that we put out.”
Silvia adds: “We see this as our life. It feeds our family. It feeds a lot of families. We are always thinking about our employees and their well–being.”
Although Silvia hopes that her employees see her as “a just and fair boss who is always watching out for them,” she doesn’t want to be seen as “just the owner and the boss.”
“I’m an employee, too, and it’s my responsibility to make sure that everything we do here makes our customers happy,” she says.
What the customer wants
Martin believes customer satisfaction results from providing three things: quality products, competitive prices and good service.
“We ensure quality by making sure that every order goes through a quality–control inspection and we have a 24–hour turnaround on the majority of our customers’ orders,” he says. “We control price by always looking to our vendors for the best price possible and then passing it along to our customers.”
Competitive pricing also has meant importing fabrics and components from China and additional countries. Although Martin prefers dealing with domestic suppliers, he says, “imports have helped us the most in terms of savings.”
Sifuentes believes that selection drives customer satisfaction, as well.
“We stock more than 2 million yards of fabric in our Los Angeles–area plant and carry more than 300 patterns,” he says. “No one else in the Western United States has that kind of selection.”
Selection also is key to the company’s approach to mattress kits. The kits, which contain quilted panels, a quilted border and a foundation cover, are assembled according to each customer’s specific needs.
“We don’t have a set lineup of kits,” Sifuentes says. “Because we have so much fabric, we can give each customer exactly what he needs.”
Giving customers exactly what they need when they need it could be a company mantra.
“Customers don’t want to keep stock because it just means money is sitting there,” Sifuentes says. “In the past, they had to go to 10 different vendors to get what they needed. Now they can just send one fax to us.”
What the customer needs
In addition to quilting services and the vast array of components, Enriquez Materials & Quilting acts as a resource to mattress manufacturers seeking information about industry regulations and trends. As an example, Sifuentes points to the role the company played in helping manufacturers understand the requirements of 16 CFR Part 1633, the federal open–flame mattress standard that took effect in July 2007.
“Manufacturers found that trying to understand what they needed to do was very frustrating,” he says. “Before the law took effect, we began educating our customer base with seminars to let them know what was going to happen and what they needed to do to prepare. The process of meeting the standard is delicate and, as a company, we try to be one of the experts in the industry on FR regulations and implementation. We help customers through the entire process, including testing, paperwork and certification.” Of course, the company also offers FR components, such as thread.
Martin says keeping abreast of industry trends and developments—whether in FR or in environmentally friendly components—and then passing that information along to customers in usable ways is an ongoing, companywide commitment.
“Staying innovative has helped our customers’ growth and ours,” Sifuentes says.
Always on the move, Martin and Silvia Enriquez plan to open additional quilting and distribution centers and are looking at spots throughout the United States.
In the meantime, they intend to continue doing as they have always done: working hard and doing everything in their power to help their customers grow and prosper.
Silvia says: “We take it day by day and go from there.”
Briefly
Company Enriquez Materials & Quilting Inc.
Specialty Quilting services, mattress kits and a wide variety of mattress components
Headquarters Commerce, Calif.
Facilities A 200,000–square–foot manufacturing and headquarters facility in Commerce and two smaller plants and distribution centers in Phoenix and Stockton, Calif.
Ownership Privately held, family–owned
Motto “Making your business successful is our business”
Learn more www.enriquezquilting.com
