Breaking Conventional Boundaries: A Dive into Modern Workspace Innovation with Workspace48’s Craig McPhail

Hi. I'm John Herb Stace with spec right interiors, and we are lucky to have the one and only Craig Mcfail of Workspace forty eight joining us today. Craig. Thank you for being here. Good to be here, John. Thanks very much. Alright. What can you tell us about Workspace forty eight? Because everything that we share with our partners out here everyone's blown away. What makes it unique? Yeah. There's there's lots of things that make us unique, John. But I think the the biggest thing is Workspace forty eight is a millennial work based company. And what that really means is that we're looking, at the industry from a totally different lens, than the big players in the market who have been doing the same thing for the last thirty, forty, fifty years. Same thing. The industry has run the same way forever, but many things, have changed, have evolved. And, you know, they're lagging behind. So we're here to revolutionize the way office furniture is bought and sold. That's our vision, and that's what we're committed to each day. You use the word revolutionize. That's a bold statement. Expound on that. What is Workspace forty eight doing that's unique and different there? So here it is. Workspace forty eight. That means you can have a Workspace shipped in forty eight hours. So, and we're not we're not looking at just one or two pieces we are talking about a whole range of products, something for every area of the office, all shipped out within forty eight hours. Wow. As you know, you've got a lot of experience in the market Currently, there's really three types of furniture providers. Firstly, you have the a level manufacturers, you know, the big, big companies, multi billion dollar companies providing furniture to corporate America. They've got solid relationships. They've built up over a number of years. And, they're the companies are kinda standardized on them. And, you know, these manufacturers, they can almost charge whatever they like, take however long they want. They're, you know, they're providing furniture, you know, fourteen, sixteen, eighteen week lead times are the the timelines that their customers need to need to wait. And then secondly, you you have, the the more mid level companies. And, you know, they're a little less expensive than the a level manufacturers. You know, a little a little quicker. Still in the eight to ten week range. Their furniture, you know, is designed, you know, a little less dedicated. They know their customers aren't as focused on design. So if some of the designs are a little bland, and then thirdly, you know, what you might consider the the cheap importers so to speak. And and they're, you know, focused just on the lowest price, you know, which leads to the lowest quality product. You know, unreliable lead times. It might say that they've got product in stock, one day. You go to place the order and it's not there, and not really, you know, not the customer service needed to back it up. So, you know, you look at it, you might say, well, that's a, that's a full house. You know, you've got the full range, but what we're seeing is, you know, things have changed drastically, over the last little while. And, you know, especially since COVID, there's a little more uncertainty And what we've seen is that, you know, companies aren't signing the ten, fifteen year office leases anymore. They're they're looking to just a one to two year lease. Well, if you only have your space for one to two years, you know, financially. It doesn't make sense to spend that, you know, the same amount of money they might have when they know that's gonna be used for for the next ten, ten, fifteen years. So that's one key change. Secondly, you know, the the Amazon effect, which, you know, Amazon's been around for a long time now, and that thinking of you know, what we order it today, we expect it tomorrow. It's it's filtering through society. And then of course, you know, the technology has has just sped everything up, and we've seen it in, some of the the recent advancements, things that would take, you know, weeks are happening in seconds, so decisions can be made much quicker. So, really, what we're seeing is that, you know, those those high level Fortune five hundred companies, they're spin off companies. They're looking for high quality, high design product, but they need it either a lot less expensive or way quicker. And, they they can't currently get that, from anyone else in the market today. So we've we've really, developed developed this whole system, this whole company, to to answer to that need, and that that gap is is growing. And, you know, it's it's working incredible. So you've shared a lot of information, changing market conditions, buying patterns, shifting, and and Workspace forty eight is is seems to be addressing a lot of things at once. So, give us an idea of of of how it's worked. I I know tell me the company two thousand ten started. Right? How successful have have you been now in addressing these conditions and give us an idea of some of those success stories? Yeah. That's that's good, John. It is, always good to paint a paint a pretty picture, but, to look at looking at the facts is is the fun part. And it's, you know, it is incredible to look back and see much success there has been. You know, since twenty twenty ten, as you say, when we, when we started the company, you know, we've installed over a hundred thousand workstations over a hundred and twenty thousand chairs. You know, I think it's around seventy thousand tables. So, you know, some some massive, volumes of product. And I think you know, even last year, you know, a lot of our market has been contracting, you know, especially, you know, some again, some of those a level manufacturers where our sales doubled last year. You know, there was no one else in the furniture industry who saw that kind of growth, and we were seeing that continue. So it's worked very well. The message is resonating in the market, and we're, we're glad to be driving this change. Okay. So before I partner with you, Before I partner with Workspace forty eight, I need to know you can handle the project operationally. Tell me what that looks like. What you guys do to make sure you can ensure that happens. Yeah. No. It it it's an incredible program that we have, John, so understand. And it's a it's a new concept. You know, right now, there is nobody else providing this high quality, high design product and the lead times and prices that we're we're able to achieve. So one of the first things, we do is focus on products, make sure that we have the right products and we're constantly, working with our customers designers getting feedback to ensure we have the right products. Then we're we're selecting the right partners so that we do have open communication. We understand what the customer needs. We we try to ask the right questions, around the customer's requirements to make sure we put forward the right proposal. But I think, right down to the operations we got an incredible, incredible operations team, incredible, delivery team, and, the biggest thing is our state of the ERP system. Over the past, two years, we've really invested heavily, a lot of resource, into ensuring we have the most efficient ERP system so that we can keep up with this promise because what Workspace forty eight means is that you can have a Workspace shipped in forty eight hours. So it's a it's a big commitment, but we are, we've set up on the back end, to make sure that we we can deliver consistently every time. So let's, you know, one of the things we get, feedback we get in in our world is, you know, some of our our dealer partners, they get really overloaded with project. Their design teams get stretched, you know, pretty far and and and pretty extended there. Tell us how Workspace forty eight comes in alleviates these issues and problems to make sure these projects go a lot smoother and gets them their their results and gets them their design, on on time in in a faster manner. Yeah. No. It's it's, again, very important part of the process, and and Workspace forty eight has, you know, again, invested in a in the know, the the best program that our industry offers, the new CET program through Configura. So we have a full extension released for our dealer to use, but as well, Workspace forty eight, looks after all the renderings. So we we'll do the the three d renderings, the fully specifying fully specifying the floor plans for our customers, and it's all turned around incredibly quick. And it's important to, you know, if we if we look at some of the exam rendering, showing a lot of the color bringing in the space, because, you know, we're working, we're we're in the furniture industry every day. We think about it. We think about design. A lot of our they don't buy furniture every year. So, and there's many companies who overlook that and don't provide the needed, accents, the needed details that a customer needs to visualize their space and be confident that, you know, what, this really is gonna work. This is what I want. So we really do pride ourselves in the fact of our the thoroughness of our drawings, of our renderings, and many times our dealers almost consider us as part of their design team. So it's a it's a great program. And this, again, I love the theme forty eight hours. You're turning these around Forty eight hours. That's right. And and scope doesn't matter. I mean, you've done projects as small as, hey, five stations here. A few benching stations, right, a few things here and there to how how large are we talking? Yeah. So project you know, as you save range range, in in, many different sizes. But, you know, projects up to a million dollars. We've delivered in under two weeks. Know, where where no one else in this industry can, you know, can't even comprehend, can't even get close to it. Again, for a customer who has you know, the the requirement of a of a high end product, a high design, but they just need it quicker or less expensive for you know, a a variety of reasons, and we are the only company who can who can provide that today. So I wanna I wanna I wanna actually have you, I wanna test this here a little bit. I want you to give us some real life examples. Again, you can't name client names, but give us examples size scope, you know, we we've got an example of our own. Yes. Spec right interiors. Ben and I, Ben was working, with a partner on one, and and we'll share a little bit about that. But tell me about your experiences. Give us some some some cool success stories we can talk about. Yeah. So a a couple different, you know, these are fortune hundred companies. One of the the biggest, messaging app, you know, that's out there who, sure, the the first project, the first phase, their headquarters, they they had a lot of time to wait. So they they ordered from one of these, a level a level manufacturers, got the product, but, you know, come expansion time They needed a hundred and fifty workstations, within within two weeks. You know, leases finally got approved. Design was finalized. Finishes were picked. You know, we have a due date. We have a deadline. And, of course, they went to their a level manufacturer, and, you know, they couldn't come couldn't come close to it. So they reached out to us. Came to the showroom, looked at the product and said, you know, I actually like this. Your cable management system even better than what we have, from one of the a level, available manufacturers, you can hit the timeline. You're thirty percent less. You know, let's do it. So so that was, that was one of our key success stories, again, with a with a Fortune five hundred company. And I think one of the key things, that differentiates us is you do have these a level manufacturers who do wanna justify this you know, substantially high price. So a lot of their engineering is is very complex, over complicated costs a lot of money. We've we've really worked on, you know, reverse engineering, focusing on the key functions, and, you know, removed all the expensive, add ons, accessories that, you know, eighty nine percent of people don't actually require. So it's it's worked very well, but, so that was that was one great product. And, you know, subsequently, we provided additional floors of furniture for them. There's there's another project that's kind of on the lead time side. As I mentioned, the, you know, a million dollar project, we had a a large college who, you know, had construction delays was gonna have to, you know, postpone opening, and and, another space came up quickly, and and they could look after all the all the paperwork and they say, look, if we can have furniture, you know, we can we can open school. We can we can get going. And so we we looked at the list. And, you know, this is arranged from training tables, training chairs, height adjustable desk, storage cabinets, a collaborative lounge furniture, you know, really product for a for a teacher's desk for a variety of areas. And, you know, we were able to provide this give them the confidence, show them the inventory in our in our warehouse and and deliver, execute the project. So, another great example of just you know, there's no one else out there who can, who can provide this. So it's it's exciting to be on the projects. And then, you know, there's another product, a very high growth tech company. And, you know, they they were looking at, looking at one of the a level brands, had the had the mock up, had it all approved, of a sudden, you know what? Times have changed a little bit. CFO cut the budget by two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. You know, it's a big it's a big, it's a big change. So they came to us and said, look, we're about to lose this lose this business. Is there anything you can do? So we provided a mock up, provided the quote, And, you know, that was, again, on a large project. So, you know, maybe twenty five percent less. They they saw they approved our our mock up and and we won the order, and the a level dealer was able still when the and I say dealer, not manufacturer, of the a level dealer, was able to win the project with our with our system. So it was a it was a great, a great win. And, you know, there's there's a lot more info. What can you say and I I wanna touch on this. What can you say about how Workspace forty eight and their product mix comes into play with with your major dealers down to, you know, again, the the b dealers and everyone in between. What have you've got success stories with all of them. That's correct. Yeah. No. We we really do. You know, and I'd say our our product design, level of quality is targeted at the the the top level companies. It is it is a high design, high quality product, and you can pair us to, you know, those a those a level manufacturers, and, you know, we are that twenty five thirty, thirty five percent less than them. But also, absolutely. We do have success with with, some of the other, you know, b level dealers, c level dealers, however you wanna, segregated, so to speak, because simply I think every person comes across the need, where at one point might not be every day, but it gonna have a customer who needs product shipped quicker or less expensive than anyone else can provide it. And as well, then you you look at the rendering support. So there may be some of these b or c level dealers who don't don't have design teams, you know, on on staff. They come to us. They partner with us. We can prepare, you know, an a level presentation for them. And and it, you know, stands out to their customer, and and it's a it's a great fit. So as you say, we do work with the full Everybody. Well, what I what I'd loved is in in in a particular project that that we were able to work on. The level of design services that went in to address a client that needed to get furniture fast. Fairly large project. And the design team on staff were right with our dealer rep and getting her everything needed on renderings, reconfigurations. No extra charge for that service. They just handled it, and and just walked her through the process. And then to take it further, when it came to getting him shipped on time, one thing that I wanted to address here that I thought was so impressive is you guys went out of your way and said, you know what, we're gonna we're just gonna make sure that we have dedicated trucks. To get this delivered on time. Can you tell us a little bit about that project? And, you know, maybe how many, how much, you guys had to stress and run around to get that get that taken care of. Yeah. No. That that's a it's an exciting, project, John, and and good to good to see. Yeah. And without, you know, speaking on values, I think, you know, roughly a hundred workstations, a number of private offices, and I know they phased it out a little bit, but a a a lot of lounge furniture, storage cabinets, you know, electrical dividers, you know, again, another project where they require something for every area of the office, not just chairs, not just stations, not just one component, but they want a high design for, you know, every area of the office, and that's exactly where we specialize in. And absolutely, we're looking for partners. So as you say, you know, no charge, you know, we're in it for the partnership. We want the long term relationship so we're not charging for the extra design services. And, you know, we feel we we pick the right partners, and it, it works well for everybody. Again, on this project size, it it was a big enough project. It made sense to, you know, have a fully dedicated truck to, ensure we can we can schedule it on time. You know, a very tight timeline project shipped out in forty eight hours again. And, you know, but but again, our company is designed for this. It's designed around this. So, absolutely, does the company have to to move quickly and these big projects, we do, but we're used to this. So it's it's, it's done in a controlled way. There's photos of the, the the palettes all packed up. Before it hits the truck, all the QC checks are done. Everything is just so systemized because this is what we do every day. We're not trying to be everything to everybody. We we focus on our niche, what we're doing, and we we, do it better than anybody else in the market. Well, Craig, it's it's exciting to hear about all the things you guys are doing for the customers, design services, you know, meeting those lead times, getting their their quality product on time. Right? Tell us, let's go into the products themselves. What can you tell us about those Yeah. The products, you know, it's it's important. The business model is unique, and and as you say, the problems we're solving, it is fun to be part of to do thing that no one else can do and and impress people every day. So the the products, are very important. You know, high design products as we've kind of alluded to high quality products, and there's products for every area of the office. So we'll focus on, you know, we've got some nice reception options, private offices, conference rooms, lunch room tables, height adjustable workstations, fixed height workstations, all the storage, electrical, power modules to go along with it. Collaborative furniture, training room furniture, meeting booths, lounge furniture. So it really is something for every area of the office. So you have a full floor plan. And I think, again, while we're working with some of these large these large customers, no one else can do that. You see some people who who can, you know, ship a few desks or or chairs, you know, quickly, but we're doing full floor plan, you know, in the hundreds of, of, workstations, you know, offices for, for, you know, massive massive companies who need it quickly. You know, we'll we'll look at, some of the detail. I think, you know, focusing in on our, what we call our Fantastic Five, our top five products. We've got our Access Workstation. Back to back workstations, really high design, nice, nice, clean, modern appearance, then we have the height adjustable workstations, just a super nice quality high quality product, nice design, and, one of the key things we really focused on cable management to ensure that, cables are all looked after. It's a really big part of it. You see some height adjustable projects where there's, you know, cabling everywhere. And, you know, easy to, you know, trip on the cords, you know, change things around. And, you know, so we we've really tried to, again, bring a professional, high grade product into this, kind of, fast and furious market. Some great task chairs, and, you know, that the new lounge furniture is one of the most exciting things. And then, you know, to to, to deliver on this forty eight hour program, we have to limit finishes to a degree, but we've got a, you know, still a wide range of products you know, wide range of finishes to to meet the customer's needs. So, you know, you have, for work surfaces, you have the white, then you have three additional wood grain finishes in stock on the forty eight hour program, which are which are really nice. It's been a recent addition. You know, and then as I said, the lounge furniture, you know, meeting booths, presentation areas, and some and some really nice, curved curved lounge pieces. So? On the motion, we call that the motion product line there. Just to clarify, on on those specifically, What's the lead time for those? So the the lounge furniture, the motion office product, collaborative furniture. That's there's there's five pieces on the forty eight hour lead time. And they are the the five most popular pieces, and we, you know, again, on that on that large college project, it included a a number of different pieces from lounge furniture to, focus pods to to, meeting booths. Okay. And this is exciting. So you've got I mean, up until recently, the forty eight hour ship program, quick ship program, that was that was with the the white laminate standard. Yes. You now have three additional wood grain finishes. This is exciting for for both. So and those can be shipped out in two days. Absolutely. Okay. Excellent. And that's just that's just hit, let's hit the airways, man. This is just starting. Right? Yeah. It's exciting. Yeah. We've currently been selling them with a three to four weekly Awesome. But, you know, forty eight hours. That's where we're going. Three to four weeks, still a lot faster than most people, but not fast enough for Workspace forty eight. So More options now. More options. So I you know what? Workspace forty eight, it is a truly, like, office on demand, furniture on demand solution. Yeah. High sleek design, on time, quality product, on time, at a price that doesn't, you know, you know, break the bag. Absolutely. No. That's exactly where we're going, John, and, we've been proving the success and lots ahead. Okay, Craig. So, let's paint a picture here. So My dealer comes to me and says, John, I need a hundred workstations. I need them in two weeks. Here's the floor plan. What can you do for me? Yeah. That's that's good, John. So what what we'll do, we'll take that floor plan, hits the design team, has a designer assigned, and, right away, we'll we'll try to schedule a phone call. If if there's the time, get on get on the phone, you know, clarify any details, and, you know, talk about budget, talk about finishes, any specific design requirements to make sure that on the first proposal, we have this thing you know, almost perfect. It does, you know, there's often some revisions, but at least, at least, the customer has a very good idea of what they're gonna get. And then we'll you know, we'll we'll get to work with the CUT program, publish the the drawings. And, of course, at the same time, it's preparing a quote. So it's it's incredibly efficient as we're drawing the system is automatically, creating a fully specified quotation at the same time. So it that's that's one of the key reasons for the speed that we can offer. So then we'll send back the the renderings and, you know, the the pricing to review, get the feedback, make any revisions needed. And then, once once, it's it's approved, hits our order system. Our order sips are our order processing system is is fully integrated. So we click a button, and it hits it moves from CET right into our order system, and, then picking list goes to the warehouse. And, it's it's it's picked and packed. There's a few checks along the way, to make sure everything's, everything's working, but, then we're we're ready to go within within forty eight hours. Sounds simple. I know there's a lot of detail to make sure that can happen that seamlessly, but it's it's a simple refined and very efficient process. Floor plan sent, you know, the design, the quote within two days. My my dealer gets it back. They make any revisions they need. They say, okay. Let's make the order. And within two days, it's on the truck. Absolutely. If needed, you know, we we work on more and more projects now. And I think, you know, we were we were chatting about one of the the big news companies that were you know, very fast growing news company that we worked with, and that was another it was a hundred and fifty stations. It wasn't, it was a relatively quickly they needed some custom, custom work surfaces provided. But we delivered that hundred and fifty stations, and there was it it was it was a hundred percent perfect. There wasn't a single bolt missing. And, you know, the the the partner on that project, the sales rep on that project said, you know, I've been I've been in the industry thirty years. I've never ever seen a project of that size with a zero punch list. So as we're working on, you know, as we're providing and delivering more of these zero punch lists, experiences, our dealers are coming back to us and saying, you know what? I don't need this in forty eight hours, but, you know, you've got such a good product, such a good process, you know, let's let's work together. So we're seeing more and more of that. So I just highlight that as, you know, you get some some dealers who, you know, place an order you please hold this for two or three weeks for us? And that's, of course, no problem at all. You know, we're set up for the forty eight hour program, but work on projects outside of that too. I love it. This is a good chance to kinda just go into the history and and, you know, how it how it started And, and then also what's what's to come? Yeah. So I I was I was, lucky enough to to really get a lot of experience from the the ground up, the whole process. So I I I started out, on the, you know, factory floor, firstly out of metal, OEM provider. So we got to, you know, got to see what it takes to to get product out the door. And then, you know, moved over to a, to a wood production OEM company, in the furniture, both supplying for office furniture, and, you know, other products as well, But, you know, it was a it enabled me to see, you know, what it takes to get the work orders through the through the system, the scheduling, you know, production, the cleaning, the QC checks, And, understood, you know, this is, you know, it's a complex process. That's, that's why these, you know, the big players in the market, that's why it does take so long because they're producing per order basis. And are there certain steps needed to to, you know, to deliver a a good a good project. And then, you know, got to move into the the R and D department, so moved up a little bit and, you know, understood what it took to, from a design side, you know, construction, right through the packaging, understood all that, and then moved into the sales side. And that's that was really when, you know, really understood, you know, this is what our customers want. Gave me, the experience of, okay, this is what it takes to design a product, get it out the door. This is what customers are asking for, and you know, it was it wasn't it wasn't matching. Customers were always asking for product, you know, a lot quicker and a lot less expensive. And so you'd look and refine processes, you might be able improve it marginally, but the gap was too big to, you know, to keep doing the same thing and meet the customer's need. And that's when, you know, Workspace forty eight really was born was, you know what, this, this needs a whole new look. It needs a whole new concept, whole new approach to the market, and that's when really, we, we kicked off Workspace forty eight, and, you know, started with a a small product range and have evolved into to what we are today. So it's been, super exciting journey. You've been awesome. Again, again, you're just just so fun to be in the market and, in this in this kinda, realm, this kinda area where where we're the only ones who are who are doing, you know, this this good a job? Let's talk about as we close what's to come. Tell us what's new, what what we had to look forward to with Workspace forty eight. Yeah. So there's lots to come. Lots to come, John. It's gonna be an exciting, rest of the year and into, into the future years. So, you know, we've got got a number of new products coming, you know, continually refining and and, adding more sophistication to the product lines to meet meet the needs of these again, these these high end companies, you know, companies who expect product, to perform a, you know, in a certain way, look a certain way, and we're continuing to streamline our distribution and, make it easy to to buy, sell, and install our products. So that's our focus, and, lots of great things to come. Craig, so, I gotta tell you, I love seeing the big kahuna next to your name. How did you earn that title? Yeah. The big kahuna. So, you know, We are we're trying to be, we're trying to have a lot of fun fun at work, you know, and I I think it it really just means making sure the business is healthy, making sure the teams looked after, and you know, there's, again, there's so many big players in the market. Things have been done the same way, and we are not them. You know, we're not trying to be them. We're not trying to copy them. We are we are workspace forty eight, unique company, fun company, and, we are just being who we are, and it's working and solving problems, and we're moving a lot quicker than them too. I love it. Craig, I appreciate you coming out. I wanna thank everybody for tuning in. If you have any questions, you wanna check out these awesome products, workspace forty eight dot com, go to the link, check out their product line or go to spec right interiors dot com, check out the link, check out the product line, and then obviously come see us in Addison at our showroom. We'll see you next time. Thank you for joining us.