Your Story Made Here: Jensen Cabinets
Your Story Made Here: Jensen Cabinets
By Melissa Long- 21Alive
By Ian Hoover- 21Alive
February 4, 2015 Updated Feb 4, 2015 at 8:02 AM EST
This week’s “Your Story Made Here” falls into the category of “who knew”?
It’s a local manufacturer whose product you have probably seen, leaned up against, argued over and excitedly walked away from. Here’s a look at Jensen Cabinets of Ft. Wayne.
Ever experienced air travel? Then the sights in an airport are familiar to you. Waiting in line to get to that all important bag check station. And then, waiting in another line to have your boarding pass scanned. Next time you are at one of the major airports in the United States, take a moment to notice the fine craftsmanship of the ticket counter! There’s a good chance it was manufactured in Ft. Wayne.
Dan Rohloff says: “Yeah, the counters you walk up to…we actually did the Ft. Wayne airport several years ago. Anything in the public eye that an agent would use like Delta Airlines, United Airlines, American Airlines, we do their corporate design and we also bid direct to airport authorities.”
The cabinets and counters and podiums are designed and fabricated on the companies Murray St. property. Right downtown. There are 35 employees and 6 floors of fabrication, painting, milling, welding, CNC machining, you name it…they do it here, and they do it well.
Dan Rohloff says: “We’re known in the industry as having the highest quality and some people might say that comes with a higher price tag. As Dennis Jensen, one of our previous owners used to say, he likes to consider us a Cadillac at a Chevy price.”
Where competitors use wood for drawers, Jensen uses metal, which is laser cut, bent into shape, welded, smoothed out and painted. The wood portions of the counter are cut and assembled and the finished product is shipped out to major airports across the country as well as the Caribbean and in latin America. Sales topped 5 million last year.
Dan Rohloff says: “Next to boeing, we are the second longest surviving vendor to United Airlines.”
The business is a mix of aesthetics and technology. Employees must have a good work ethic and be good with their hands. The atmosphere in the decades old building is easygoing, where the partners mix with the employees to problem solve and get things done. Jensen Cabinets products can be found at O’Hare, Detroit Metro, Hartsfield in Atlanta, Reagan National and many others. So next time your flight has been cancelled…go ahead and pound on the counter…if it’s made by Jensen Cabinets…it’ll hold up just fine!
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