Innovating For Niche Markets

Cosmo Cabinets has pulled off an impressive feat: From its founding, the cabinet manufacturer has increased staff from less than 10 people, manufacturing 50 cabinets daily, to a nationwide team that includes nearly 150 people, producing an average of 1,400 cabinets daily. At the heart of this growth is a niche market, a unique manufacturing model and winning culture.

Umaesh Khaitan, founder and CEO, shares the processes he and his team have developed to propel the success of the Eatonton, Georgia-based company.

Tell us about your model and how it best serves your unique niche.

Cosmo Cabinets operates in a state-of-the-art 350,000-square-foot manufacturing facility. We produce European-style frameless kitchen and bathroom cabinetry for housing developments nationwide, including multifamily, senior, student and affordable housing projects.

To meet the needs of our niche markets, we have developed a sophisticated approach featuring a complementary blend of a cloud-based IT system, multiple conveyor lines and a one-directional flow model to streamline production. The methodology supports high-volume output and maintains consistent quality that is essential when cabinets are deployed across large complexes.

Since our inception in 2018, our manufacturing model has consistently remained effective because of our company-wide culture, which positions customer value as the motivating factor for our operations and overall success.

Using the acronym COSMO C.A.R.E.S., which stands for Communicate, Accountable, Reliable, Excellence and Safety, we foster a workplace culture that consistently meets the demands of a fast-paced construction environment by emphasizing the importance of clear communication, personal accountability and rigorous safety standards. These values promote smoother coordination and reliable outcomes.

In 2024, Construction Business Review Magazine named Cosmo Cabinets as the Kitchen and Bath Cabinets Company of the Year. Tell us about your company’s growth.

When I founded Cosmo, we had a staff of less than 10 people that started manufacturing 50 cabinets daily. Now, our nationwide team includes nearly 150 people, including 120 on-site staff in Eatonton. Our on-site team can now produce an average of 1,400 cabinets daily.

Cosmo has quickly become a reliable provider among architects and developers in the affordable and multifamily markets because of our exceptional ability to provide a sustainable product at a competitive price with reliable lead times.

Our sustainable cabinet feature is the plastic leg leveler system, which reduces the likelihood of costly repairs and maintenance. The system has a three-dowel base that elevates the cabinet 4.5 inches off the floor. The design reduces the possibility of time-consuming and expensive repairs in the case of minor flooding when, typically, the toe plate is the only cabinet part that has to be replaced.

In addition to ensuring reduced costly repairs, our cabinets are ideal for our niche markets because of their durability. Our frontal cabinet components are wrapped in polyvinyl chloride in solid and woodgrain looks to safeguard against scratches, fingerprints, and permanent markers.

These attributes are attractive to designers and builders who are seeking a low-maintenance choice for modern design schemes. More importantly, Cosmo produces its cabinets domestically, resulting in more excellent lead times and local supply chain support.

Our exceptional cabinetry design, combined with our reliability, continues to provide Cosmo with exponential growth. For three consecutive years, we have ranked on the Inc. 5000 list.

You primarily install your products in affordable multi-family and senior housing developments nationwide. How did you come about developing this intriguing niche, and how have you built relationships within those sectors?

Before I established Cosmo, I already had firm relationships with supply chain companies overseas. My organization was an intermediary between U.S.-based designers and developers and South Asian and European manufacturers to purchase building products for U.S.-based construction companies.

The relationships I developed in the U.S. and overseas inspired me to launch Cosmo Cabinets because I recognized a need in the U.S. market for developers and designers to have a domestic organization that could mass produce affordable, durable and aesthetically pleasing kitchen and bath cabinetry that was customizable for large-scale apartment buildings.

Since establishing the company, I have continued to nurture my long-term relationships and build new ones through our sales team, attending national industry conferences, and placing bids for housing development projects. Some of Cosmo’s standout projects nationwide are the Lumen Briarcliff Project in Atlanta, the Atla Foundry Project in Nashville, and The Raven at Tremont in Charlotte.

What does the future hold for Cosmo Cabinets?

In the near future, Cosmo is launching the production of face frame cabinets which is 80 percent of the U.S. market demand. Our continuous goal is to provide high-quality and aesthetically pleasing kitchen and bathroom cabinetry at a competitive price with long-term durability and minimal maintenance cost.

Our team is constantly researching machinery and software that will include staff productivity without compromising quality. Shortly, Cosmo Cabinets will launch a slew of new products at the forefront of the cabinetry manufacturing industry.