Ken Rohl spent 23 years in Corporate America before deciding it was time to strike out on his own. It was a kitchen faucet of all things,a fancy pullout faucet,that nudged him out.
Rohl, who used to work for a plumbing company in Chicago, went to a trade show in Germany and spotted a faucet with a hose that came out of the spout.
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“I thought what a great concept,” he said.
He invited the Swiss makers of the faucet to meet with the executives of his company.
Rohl’s boss was skeptical: “Ken, it will make a nice anchor on a boat but nobody will pay $250 for a kitchen faucet,” Rohl recalled him saying.
Today, Rohl and his three sons have built Irvine-based Rohl LLC into a leading marketer of luxury kitchen and bath products. The company has annual sales of $65 million and employs about 60 workers.
Rohl received the Business Journal’s medium business honor at the annual Family Owned Business luncheon put on by the Business Journal and California State University, Fullerton’s Family Business Council. It was held Nov. 16 at the Hyatt Regency Irvine.
By 1983, Ken Rohl was testing the faucet in the market, working half time for himself and half for his company.
Upon his arrival to the West Coast, Rohl rented a car in San Francisco and drove to Southern California where the ocean beckoned. His first home he rented was a place near the water in Newport Beach. He later met his wife who drew him to Irvine, where they now live in Woodbridge.
He started his business in a second bedroom. In 1985, he moved the company to a 6,000-square-foot building in Santa Ana. In 1989, Rohl moved to bigger digs in Costa Mesa. Last year, it settled into a 50,000-square-foot headquarters in Irvine.
Rohl doesn’t make anything itself. The company designs faucets and other products and finds factories that can make fancy plumbing fixtures.
The company has arrangements with factories in Western Europe, New Zealand, Canada and even one in Los Angeles. Jon Grauman, based in Los Angeles, makes an above-the-countertop artisan sink bowl for Rohl. On one Web site, the polished aluminum version of the Rohl Jon Grauman sink sells for about $700.
Rohl also sells footed bathtubs, showerheads and bath faucets by designer Michael Berman.
The products are marketed to showrooms and distributors, which then sell to customers. Its products are sold in 800 locations, including B & C; Custom Hardware and Bath in Irvine, Blackman Plumbing Supply Co. in New York and Pipeline Supply Co. in Minnesota.
Some of Rohl’s rivals include Jado Corp. in Arizona and Grohe AG of Germany.
Rohl said he sees competition beyond that. His products compete with any luxury item, be it travel or anything else that vies for discretionary income, he said.
The company’s business has been expanding at a rapid pace for the past four years. Rohl said he expects it to grow by about 30% this year. The East Coast makes up about half of its business, he said.
The driving force: Baby Boomers. They are celebrating their riches and paying more attention to their bathrooms and kitchens. No longer is the bathroom a place to wash. It’s a place to rejuvenate in a spa-like environment. And the kitchen? It’s being relished like never before, thanks to TV shows about cooking and home magazines.
Rohl’s three sons were well into their own careers before they joined the company. Rohl said he had never harbored any desires to have his sons join the company. It just happened, he said.
Middle son Louis was first on board. He is chief operating officer and managing partner based in Irvine. Oldest son Mark was in sales for Marriott Corp. before joining the family business.
“He said he’d like to get on the train before it got out of the station,” Rohl said.
Mark heads up Rohl’s Eastern division and is based in New Jersey.
Greg, the youngest son, was last to join in 1993. He was an editor at a kitchen and bath trade magazine and was mulling a move to New York to further his magazine career.
His father needed a marketing person at that time, and Greg stepped in to fill the job and stayed. He left the marketing side of the business four years ago and now is president of Rohl’s Western division in San Francisco.
They all get along famously, Rohl said.
“Our mantra: When we all agree, somebody is unnecessary,” he said.
It also may help that he and his sons are spread out across the country, Rohl said.
The family has spent the past four Christmases in Sun Valley, Idaho, where Rohl has a home. They ski together. They also see each other during quarterly meetings. Rohl recently traveled with son Mark to Europe for business and pleasure. He and his sons like to compete in golf.
“We always manage to play a couple rounds of golf every year,” he said.
The Rohl family even has confronted an issue that sometimes is ignored in family businesses: “If anything happens to dad, who is the successor?”
They sat down over lunch.
“I posed the challenge,” Rohl said.
They mutually decided Lou, who has the most experience working with the Swiss and European vendors, would succeed their father.
Rohl’s in the office daily. He is the strategic head and his sons are the tactical guys, he said. June through September Rohl works from his Sun Valley home. He tried it for the first time last year.
“It worked out beautifully,” he said.
Rohl has no intentions of retiring.
“There is no reason for me to ever retire,” he said. “I enjoy what I’m doing too much.” n
