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A Lasting Legacy Parrish & Company, a family-owned business, is known in San Antonio as the place to go for fireplaces.
Written By Sharon Sanders
Photography by Fred Moses
For the past 37 years, the Parrish family has run its business with integrity, honesty, and foresight, all of which have paid off well. Parrish & Company, based in San Antonio, Texas, is known locally by custom builders and homeowners as the one-stop shop for hearth and home products.
In October 2009, the company’s luxury hearth showroom made its debut—at a time when many retailers can barely pay their bills. “We’re fortunate to be starting a new chapter in our hearth business right now,” Dan Parrish, owner, explains. “We’ve learned a lot over the years, and we know what we need to do to stay strong in any market circumstance.”
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| From left: Dan and Susan Parrish, owners; Brette Parrish, vice president of sales; Kelly Parrish Walker, marketing manager; Greg Wingate, San Antonio showroom manager; and James (Woody) Nance, vice president and fireplace/garage-door manager |
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| Parrish & Company has built its reputation with local builders as the place to get everything under one roof, from high-end appliances to hearth products. |
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| In October 2009, Parrish & Company partnered with Hearth & Home Technologies to create a new, modern hearth showroom. |
In 1972, Parrish and his wife, Susan, joined a business partner to form Parrish & Company, becoming the first company in San Antonio to sell and install prefabricated fireplaces. Prior to that, fireplaces were sold primarily through local lumberyards.
After years of building up business and developing a reputation with builders for personal service, Parrish & Company gradually diversified into a number of other home-related product lines. Today, it is the go-to company not only for fireplaces, but for garage doors, kitchen countertops, GE Monogram appliances, lighting fixtures, and windows as well. Parrish also owns a separate kitchen-cabinet business that constitutes a large part of his overall revenue.
The company has expanded to include three Texas retail stores, in San Antonio, Austin, and La Feria. “Our ability to package numerous products for our builders, under one roof, has been our advantage over our competitors,” Parrish says. “Instead of wasting time dealing with up to six different suppliers, builders can call one place and talk to one person. They are used to the way we do business, and we are used to the way they do business.”
Parrish admits that the hearth side of the business has always been his favorite. “A hearth is something that can change the whole atmosphere of a room, and it’s rewarding to see the final result,” he says. Parrish & Company is the only retailer in San Antonio that has gas fireplaces burning in its showrooms; Parrish considers the showrooms to be one of the company’s biggest assets, along with its service. “Builders send their clients in, knowing they will see something they like,” he explains.
He adds that the company’s remodeling business has grown considerably over the past few years, and that he is seeing more and more homeowners in his stores looking for ideas and products. “I know today’s consumers are online, researching and comparing products, but I also know they want to see and feel a fireplace before they drop $3,000 or more on one,” he says.
Earlier this year, Parrish decided that the time was right to update the hearth showroom in the San Antonio store (which is the largest location, at 5,000 square feet). His daughter, Kelly Parrish Walker, marketing manager; his son, Brette Parrish, vice president of sales; and James Nance, fireplace manager, met with Lester Palmer and Krisann Parker-Brown, representatives of Hearth & Home Technologies, to come up with a plan to add 1,800 square feet of new showroom space.
After about three months of design and construction, the project was complete—and the result was even better than Parrish had ever imagined. The hearth showroom was transformed into a fresh, modern store within a store featuring living-room, family-room, and kitchen vignettes that showcase the latest high-tech products from Heat & Glo, Heatilator, Quadra-Fire, and Dimplex. “We have see-through fireplaces, modern units with linear flames, realistic electrics, and pretty much everything Hearth & Home Technologies has introduced in the past year,” he explains.
With outdoor hearth business on the rise, Parrish & Company made certain that the showroom included a cozy patio vignette, complete with a gas grill and an outdoor fireplace. Now that the new hearth showroom is complete, the San Antonio store has three impressive areas where customers can shop for lighting, appliances/cabinets, and fireplaces. “We’ve had great support from all of our vendors to create our expansive showroom,” Parrish says.
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| Parrish & Company’s impressive hearth showroom is filled with colors, textures, and all the latest hearth products. |
The payoff of the hearth-remodeling project started almost immediately after the company opened the doors of the luxurious new space. Walker reports that the new showroom is helping customers to think outside the box when it comes to fireplaces and their various applications in the home. Because people are falling in love with the new fireplaces, the number of upgrade sales has doubled, and Parrish & Company is selling more high-end units than ever before.
“That is the reason we invested the money, but I honestly didn’t know we would get so much action so quickly,” Parrish laughs. As the market turns around in 2010 and 2011, Parrish & Company plans to leverage the newly remodeled showroom to attract even more high-end business.
Despite appearances, Parrish & Company has not been unscathed by the dismal economy, and it has been forced to tighten its belt, as it has many times before. Parrish emphasizes that anyone who has been in the building industry for any length of time knows that you must put away money during the times when you’re making a respectable profit. “We’re making sacrifices today that newer businesses may not be able to make—because they haven’t been able to put the beans away to get through these tough times,” he says.
Parrish continues to invest for the long term by hiring and training the young people who will become the next generation of management, operations, and sales staff at Parrish & Company. They include his children, Kelly and Brette, and David Walton, San Antonio cabinet and countertop manager, as well as Kent Wallis and Chris Myers, Austin managers. Parrish says, “I have a smart bunch of kids working for me who have seen and learned a lot in their time here. If I want the company to be around for another 37 years, I need to step aside and let them run with it.”
PHPR November/December 2009
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