CP&W Custom Cabinets

Luckily for Saline County residents and many surrounding areas, when it comes to choosing cabinets, CP&W Custom Cabinets is the one-stop shop for nearly everything.

For the past two decades, CP&W Custom Cabinets has been serving the people of Saline County with custom frameless, European-style cabinets from the same location in Benton.

“We are a little different,” said owner Curtis Lowry. “We do strictly frameless, European-style cabinets. We are different from everyone around here.

“We produce cabinet parts and doors for other cabinet makers in the area as well. We do molding in-house as well. We offer more than just the cabinets.”

Lowry opened for business in 2000 and was jointed shortly thereafter by his business partner Darrel Jones. Lowry graduated from Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, earning his bachelor’s degree in business. From there he would embark on a career in industrial work, even after kickstarting CP&W Custom Cabinets.

“Before this, I did mainly production planning, purchasing, and scheduling, while Darrel was more on the design side,” Lowry said. “We worked together at another company before starting this. Darrel has drawn and designed everything from picture frames to sawmill equipment.”

Before jumping headfirst into cabinet making, CP&W began by manufacturing packing parts for industrial companies. CP&W Custom Cabinets would begin making cabinet doors and parts between 2001-02, and have yet to stop.

“We still made packing parts up until just a couple of years ago, so we did it for 20-plus years,” Lowry added. “One of our dear customers, Clayton Summerville told us for years, ‘Why are we doing the hard part? Why not do the cabinets as well?’ We finally listened, and with the help of our production manager at the time (Mark Wells), we began making cabinets.”

Lowry said the business initially developed only packing parts because nobody could draw CAD files for the CNC well at the time.

“Darrel came in and could draw, brought that aspect into it, and eventually it morphed into cabinet doors, cabinet parts and molding, and finally into the cabinet side of it,” Lowry said. From there, Benton-made European-style cabinets were born.

Twenty-three years later, Lowry said he and his business are focused on improving new homes for locals.

“Our primary focus right now is custom new homes,” Lowry said. “That is where we shine. We do everything from design, to build, to install. We build all our cabinets, doors, and molding in-house. Right here in Saline County.”

Though high quality, “We are not for everybody,” Lowry said. “We are for the people looking to do something unique. With the frameless cabinets, you get about 18- to 20-percent more storage in the same footprint.”

“Everything that is not metal, all the wood components—we do that here. Start to finish, we do it here.”

Lowry said the major difference in frameless cabinets compared to modern builds, is storage. “There is a large difference in what you can actually get to put your belongings into with frameless versus face-framed cabinetry,” Lowry said. “Aesthetically, it gives you a lot cleaner lines and a lot tighter fits.”

Today at CP&W Custom Cabinets, employees are operating three CNC machines to keep up with the customer requests. Lowry explains, “It starts with a CAD drawing and from there it is taken to the CNCs. It is very automated and a lot more high-tech than a lot of people realize.”

When looking to upgrade cabinets in a home, Lowry has three tips for customers to help make the process smoother:

1.Check the reputation of the people you are dealing with.

2. Have some ideas, design-wise, of what you like.

3. If you have the opportunity, visit the facility and see how things are made and see what goes into it.

Lowry said that his regulars and potential customers can visit his business at any time to witness exactly how the production process works.

“We are in a 17,000-square-foot building and everything is done here,” he added. “They can come here and see how it is done.”

At first, Lowry opened the business by renting a nearby 5,000-square-foot building. But he quickly realized he would soon need more real estate. And it’s time for yet another expansion. Lowry added that he and Jones are now deciding to add on to the current building or build an additional new facility. 

Like many Saline County businesses, CP&W Custom Cabinets is family owned and operated with two of Lowry’s children working for the company as well. Lowry’s oldest son Matt supervises and operates the cabinet side of the business, while his daughter, Sarah, works part-time in the office while also thriving as a full-time Realtor.

“Watching the business grow and the people grow—I don’t want to lose sight of that,” Lowry said. 

Despite making a living for the past 20-plus years in the cabinet market, Lowry said it has not always been easy.

“Start-up is brutal, and I will tell that to anyone,” Lowry said. “It is one of those things that you go through and wouldn’t wish on anyone, but you are glad you did it once you go through it.”

“It has been difficult finding the right people,” he said. “The right people are the ones who fit us and want to be a part of a team and work together. Then we can train them from there. We used to spend a lot of time looking for people with certain abilities. Everyone we have now has a common goal: they want to help each other.”

While most businesses experience hard times in the beginning, years later the rewards far outweigh the difficulties. “Going from one CNC in a small shop to two and now three CNC machines, and seeing those constantly running because they need to, is good,” Lowry said.

“Our growth in business has come through word-of-mouth and referrals,” Lowry said. “We pride ourselves on taking care of our customers.”