Oct. 5—Nearly 300 Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers of America members arrived at Indiana Dimension Inc. in Logansport Wednesday morning for a tour of the facilities, which is shared with Cole Hardwood.

The tour was part of the KCMA 2023 Fall Management Conference taking place in Fort Wayne from Oct. 2-5.

Those on the tour saw various operating stations within the warehouse, such as the chop saw and panel saw, the color match and glue press and the packaging and final sanding station. There were 12 stops on the tour with 12 groups participating.

It was the first time since 2012 that the group had been able to tour IDI.

Jean Cole, widow of Cole Hardwood co-founder Milt Cole, welcomed the guests at the beginning of the tour.

Cole told guests the story of how the company began and also how it was nearly lost in a 1998 fire.

Sales manager Jeremy Rentscher proceeded to share how the company had grown since the 2012 tour.

"Over the last decade we have been reinventing this business," he said.

Founded in 1990, 80% of the business was focused on providing materials for RVs up until 1996. It also made handrails for stairways, house trimming, flooring, furniture parts and more to make ends meet in those early years.

"And now we have kinda morphed into cabinet doors and door fronts, kitchen cabinet components," Rentscher said.

Since 2012, the company is up to 120 employees, nearly double since the last KCMA tour. The company also went debt-free before Milt Cole passed away on Thanksgiving in 2020. Rentscher also said that now only 10% of the business is focused on RVs. It began processing MDF material 18 months ago.

KCMA members came from across the country for the conference. States represented on the tour included Ohio, Minnesota, North Carolina, South Dakota, Oregon and Texas.