Business Matters: Randy’s Booth Celebrates New Showroom in Crystal
At Randy’s Booth Company in Crystal, there’s reason to celebrate. The company now has a brand new showroom to showcase its latest designs. The new showroom is a sign of progress for a business eyeing future growth.
“We’ve seen a big spike in sales of people wanting that handmade furniture,” said Bert Kissoondath, owner of Randy’s Booth Company. “It seems like the trend for us. It seem like all the booths for us are made of hardwood for our frame. So it looks like people are still buying quality over quantity.”
Kissoondath took over the company after his father, Randy Kissoondath, passed away in 2009. Randy’s Booth continues to make custom seating for restaurants, but is increasingly expanding its reach to corporate buildings, hair salons, health care clinics, even schools.
“A lot of places now are going more modern looks in the restaurants, more couch looks-like booths that have the couch look to it,” said Kissoondath.
The company’s recent projects included work for restaurants like Crave and Red Cow. It also made bedheads for Mystic Lake Casino Hotel. Future projects include making seating for a new restaurant in Saint Louis Park called The Block.
Randy’s Booth: “If You Can Dream It, We’ll Build It”
President Michael Engel joined Randy’s Booth three months ago. Engel gave CCX News a tour to show how everything is made.
“Everything we work on is really custom. If you can dream it, we’ll build it. We get that all the time. People come in with a napkin sketch, kind of draw it up and say ‘can you do something like this?’ Yeah, we’ll do it,” Engel said.
While current furniture trends may lean modern, its workforce relies little on modern technology to do the job.
There’s not a mass production way of doing it. We do it all by hand,” said Engel.
So handcrafted in fact, it’s hard to find help. Take seamstress Jill Julich for example. She’s worked in the profession for 40 years. There’s a reason employers have a hard time finding someone with Julich’s skillset.
“There’s no place that teaches it anymore,” said Julich. “That’s why it’s kind of hurting. There was two schools years ago, and they’re both. They’re done.”
Challenge of Finding Employees
Randy’s Booth currently has 30 employees. Owner Bert Kissoondath knows that in order to grow the business he’ll need to find more people that love working with their hands.
“We’re looking for people that want to learn a trade, or know the trade of woodshop, upholstery, sewing. If they want to learn, or they have the skill already, we’d like to expand on that and grow even larger,” Kissoondath said.
But Kissoondath takes comfort in knowing the community of Crystal is willing to help make that happen.
“The community has been great over here,” he said. “Hopefully, we can employ some more people in the area and expand the business.”
