DE PERE, Wis. — Giving raw wood a distinctive look is the long-time job, and art, of Jeff Wery.
“We’re staining and shading the backs of doors,” said Wery, the finishing room manager at Valley Cabinet, Inc. “The front sides are done already, so, we bring them back and color match the fronts of the doors to the backs of the doors.”
Wery’s worked at the company for more than 40 years. He said it’s impossible to count the number of high-end custom cabinets he’s helped make in that time.
“We’ve done a lot of homes here,” he said. “Big projects, small projects, remodels, just add on type stuff. The same type of quality goes into every one of those projects we touch here.”
Martin Casiano Rodriguez works with Wery in the finishing room, as a supervisor. He’s been with the company for two years and said the best part is seeing the change from start to finish.
“You can see the raw wood, and then you can see at the end of the day everything painted very well, very nice, and very shiny,” Casiano Rodriguez said. “I love all that.”
Valley Cabinet is a family business that opened in De Pere 64 years ago. It’s currently undergoing a 90,000-square-foot addition driven by increased sales and expansion into new markets.
Human Resources Director Sara Suckow said the company is looking to fill a variety of open positions ranging from door assembly to sanding, spraying, installation and customer service roles.
“What we look for is attitude, coachability and dependability,” Suckow said. “Those are core skills we like in all our employees. When it comes to different areas of finishing, we want to teach how to sand, and then we’ll move them into roles as they develop and grow. That’s something we’ll train.”
Valley Cabinet has several different divisions. In addition to making custom pieces for homes it also supplies other businesses and operates Counter-Form in Marshfield, a laminate countertop maker.
Wery said even after four decades on the job, he’s always learning new things.
“There’s a lot of new technology that we go out and investigate and bring in,” he said. “We have to figure out some of the new finishes people come up with that they see on Pinterest, and that type of thing.”
Information on careers at Valley Cabinet can be found, here.