What is Discontinued

Manufacturers come and go, sadly. Over a decade ago, we lost several product lines due to the US housing and mortgage crisis during that 2008-2010 period. It is hard to keep track of all of them. So for the recent omissions from our website, we are going to back track a little and tell their stories.

In December 2021, Siro Designs decided to close up shop in the United States. The Siro parent company in Austria is still around, but there is no longer a US distributor for their products. So the inventory we have had left over the past couple of years, we have slowly been selling off. It is considerably limited, but on some items, we have some large quantities left.

In Novemeber 2022, AC Products was sold. The new owner did not have intentions of continuing the business. We were able to stock up on a lot of their bathroom hardware that they already had made. Orders for new production were disbanded. Thus, we did stock up. And most of that lasted us halfway through 2023. Now, our mainstream items are gone. We have odds and ends. And our web pages for them, some kept in their entirety reflect what remains in stock. Lenape has stepped up and added several bath hardware items to their line to help fill the hole that ACP left.

In March 2023, Woodmont Doors decided to make their doors ONLY for their own cabinet division called Woodmont Cabinets. Thus, these nice custom made doors were no longer available to the general public. We already had Brushy Creek Custom Doors on our website and quickly added their unfinished wood doors also to provide more selections. From WalzCraft, we had already added the melamine doors with wood pulls that Woodmont discontinued shortly before they stopped selling to distributors.

In the Spring of 2022, we decided to remove Accuride from our website. We had shown their TV swivels, Deluxe Keyboard Trays, and Flipper Door Slides since 2001. But, in the craziness of prices dramatically going up, our cost on Accuride products increase about 80%, not 4 to 10% like other companies, or even 0% on some. So we felt, hey, this is way too expensive for what it is, and we were promoting hardware for older technology. Time to just let it go.

This was a shocker. In January 2024, Arthur Harris decided to stop making their custom size stainless steel handles, knobs, and back to back handles. Interest on them was declining, but also, suppliers of the stainless steel material doubled their prices. When raw goods prices are doubled to the manufacturer, there is almost no way that the doubling of the retail pricing cannot happen. So that was the end of an era. We had offered Arthur Harris since 2001 also. This was a hard hit. And we are not going to find anyone who will make handles to size in all the sizes they did. Sad to say.

The above is what we have encountered over the last two years, most of it in the last 12 months. Losing AC Products and Siro Designs was horrible. Our number one ceramics line and our most versatile decorative knobs and pull line. We are trying to offer solutions in lieu of them being gone. Recently we added Sietto Decorative Hardware. Some extremely nice handles that you will not find in retail outlets. Lenape expanded a little. And Brushy Creek has added many more 3-D laminate colors which we still need to update on our website.

Prior to a couple of years ago, we did lose our wood switchplate manufacturer. As well as stainless steel switchplates and colorful themed switchplates. Both of the granite handle and knob producers that we had went out of business. We lost three lines of pewter cabinet handles and knobs. That period of 2008 til almost 2014 was hard on a lot of small businesses. We watched a lot of them go out of business. We lost Quality Doors in 2009, they were sold, and then put out of business. Woodmont filled that hole until Woodmont went away.

At one time we had over a dozen lines of custom knobs and pulls, some really wild stuff. Themed hardware. We still have BuckSnort Lodge, they have animal and nature themes for their decorative hardware. Our selections on Century Hardware, Schaub, and Rock Solid have gone down. With Schaub, we can add a lot more and we intend to as time permits. Schuab and Emtek are huge. There is a lot of decorative hardware to show from them. Some of it jewelry-like with their Mother of Pearl line. Lenape used to be a lot larger than what they were, but they closed their New Jersey kiln in 2009 and solely brought in product from their factory in Thailand. WalzCraft is also another company that is HUGE. Their selections of cabinet doors, drawer fronts, and everything under the sun to make a dream beyond dream kitchen is incredible. Way too much to even consider adding to our website. But we will try to add some. And then ... and then there is Hafele. By far the largest cabinet and furniture hardware distributor in the world. We have a lot to add from them!

So things just change. Coping with the changes and looking for solutions to combat those changes, are challenges to be had....