Customers walking into the Colleen Horner Kitchen • Bath • Tile • Stone showroom near downtown Milwaukee sometimes ask, “Is there really a Colleen Horner?”

The answer, of course, is yes.

Horner is president not only of the company that bears her first and last names, but also carries the same title with Horner Plumbing, a company founded by her late husband in 1969. She has learned the plumbing contracting business and the showroom business from the ground up, having started by doing the books of Bruce Horner’s fledgling plumbing firm.

“Horner Plumbing stands behind everything we sell in our showrooms,” Horner says. “That helps the showroom business a great deal because no one wants disgruntled customers.”

Horner Plumbing installs all the plumbing sold through two showrooms in Milwaukee and Pewaukee, WI. Master Plumber Tim Barber does the plumbing estimates on all the remodeling jobs and high-end residential new construction.

“Tim’s a wonderful resource for all our designers and a great font of knowledge,” Horner says. “He has an unbelievable memory and knows exactly how a product like a free-standing tub should be installed. He takes ownership of all the projects we do.”

Changing Market

Enlarge this picture The Colleen Horner showroom in Milwaukee is designed for walk-in traffic.

The first Colleen Horner showroom opened 10 years ago in Pewaukee, selling high-end plumbing products, tile, countertops, cabinets, accessories and soft goods such as towels and linens.  Originally, that two-level, 3,800-square-foot showroom catered mostly to the tastes of people having custom homes built.  

Colleen Horner got her start in the showroom business in 1988 by managing Horner Plumbing’s Private Design Centre, a 2,200-square-foot showroom open by appointment only. When the plumbing contractor closed a deal with a builder, Design Centre employees scheduled an appointment with the homebuyer to review all the plumbing products that might go into the new home. They would try to entice the customer into upgrading and adding onto the plumbing originally specified.

When Colleen Horner started a separate showroom in 1998, she opened its doors to the public with regular store hours. She hired consultant David Lyon, who not only designed the showroom, but also suggested that Colleen Horner use her first and last names for the business to make it sound more appealing.

“We want the retail trade, that’s what we’re after,” Horner said in an interview 10 months after her first showroom opened. “I think Colleen Horner Bath & Tile should enhance Horner Plumbing and vice versa.”

Although successful, the suburban location was  driving  distance  for most showroom customers. Horner started to scout locations in Milwaukee, being attracted particularly to the city’s rejuvenated Historic Third Ward. What had been an industrial and warehousing district now housed shops, restaurants, bars, condos and the Milwaukee Public Market.

“I wanted someplace downtown for walk-in customers,” Horner says. “This area was exploding with activity.”

A smaller space across the street was available, but Horner discovered her current 5,000-square-foot, first-floor location when her contracting company was hired by the building owner to do the plumbing. The second showroom opened in March 2003.

Besides substantially more foot traffic, the most noticeable difference inside the new showroom is the kitchen presence – displays featuring cabinets, countertops and appliances along with plumbing products and accessories. Outside both showrooms, however, the market has been shifting from new home construction to the remodeling of high-end homes and converting of downtown buildings to condos.

“New home construction activity is very low right now,” says Marc Frisco, general manager of the showroom operation. “People are staying put a little longer. They come to us to give them a fresh new bath or an updated look in their kitchen.”

Changing Business

Enlarge this picture Colleen Horner with one of the many working fixtures in the showroom.

Colleen Horner hired Frisco in the fall of 2006, the same year Horner Plumbing acquired competitor Bayview Plumbing. The contractor now employs 70 plumbers, while 12 people work in the showroom company. Frisco, whose background includes real estate and management, met Horner through his wife, Melissa, who sells soft goods such as linens and towels to the Colleen Horner showrooms.

Unlike custom homebuyers, remodeling customers increasingly were asking Colleen Horner staff to take control of the entire bath or kitchen project. Rising customer expectations demanded that Horner take a closer look at her showroom staff.

“We had hired people based on their personality and trained them,” Horner says. “The job is too complex to do that. We didn’t always get the best results.

“We needed people who understood the entire design. They need to understand a space and visualize the entire project. We’ve never been a place where people come in just to buy a faucet or a sink. Marc came in to save the day.”

After Frisco was hired, the showroom staff turned over entirely in about a year. The Milwaukee location now has four full-time accredited designers and Pewaukee has two.

Enlarge this picture The new showroom has a strong kitchen presence with cabinets, countertops and appliances.

The showroom staff’s compensation combines salary and commissions. The investment in qualified employees is considerable, Horner says, and critical to the showrooms’ success due to the relationships they’re able to forge with customers and outside designers.

Typical remodeling jobs range from $50,000 for a second bathroom that may include an air-jet tub, a vessel sink and stone floor, to $140,000 for a master bath. Not many kitchen projects come in under $100,000 when the price of high-end appliances is added to the bid.

When overseeing projects, the company subcontracts the non-plumbing installations. Colleen Horner showrooms sell all the bath-and-kitchen products except the kitchen appliances, which it purchases through a local retailer.

Although showroom staff members hear about universal design, “green” construction and other trends from customers, their clients’ purchases usually come down to how a combination of products would look in their bathrooms and kitchens. That’s why having the showroom operation is such an advantage.

“Our clients are all about aesthetics. They see something on display and they want it,” Frisco says. “Most of what they buy is what they see here.”

New Challenges

Enlarge this picture Customers tend to buy products and accessories they see displayed in the showroom.

While Colleen Horner clients tend to be less price conscious than the average consumer, that’s not to say that some of them don’t shop around a bit. Milwaukee has giant retail home centers, as most metropolitan areas do.

One of Colleen Horner’s biggest suppliers on the wholesale side sells directly to the public through its own showroom operation. And, some builders have showrooms as well.

Perhaps the biggest nuisance, however, is the Internet. The occasional consumer has shopped the Colleen Horner showroom and even tapped its employees’ design expertise, only to inform them that he’s found products at a lower price online.

The company combats these challenges in a number of ways.

First, it displays and sells products that normally are not found elsewhere in the Milwaukee area or online. Its product lines include Herbeau, Brizo, Hansgrohe, Grohe, Dornbracht, Bain Ultra, Toto, Cesame, Rohl, Lefroy Brooks, Le Bijou, Jado, Vitraform, Artistic Tile, Oceanside Glass Tile, Sonoma Tile, M2 Glass Tile, Pratt & Larson, Tres Feltman, Bisazza, La Fata Cabinetry, Dutchmade, Sokee, Robern and Stone Forest.

“But we try to give clients exactly what they want,” Horner says, “even if we don’t stock the item.”

In addition, the Colleen Horner showroom company buys as many of its lines that it can direct from manufacturers. This helps its margins as well as addressing the competitive issue.

Perhaps most importantly, however, it depends on the relationships its staff develops with customers to drive its business.

“We don’t stock what the big-box stores sell, and we face an ever-growing online pressure,” Horner says. “But we look at the entire room, instead of individual pieces.

“It really goes back to the staff, though. It’s all about the people you employ and all about relationships.”