The 36 employees at Corman and Associates include woodworkers, engineers, machine operators, designers and artists.
Celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, Lexington-based Corman and Associates operates three businesses under one roof. Two roofs, actually — at 871 and 881 Floyd Drive. Corman Kitchen and Bath is a custom design, fabrication and installation business.
Corman and Associates, the parent company, designs and manufactures custom cabinetry, displays, millwork and, more recently, PPE shields for retail stores. The Corman Marketplace is a year-round Christmas store.
Ted Corman
“First and foremost, we are woodworkers,” said Ted Corman, president of the company and son of its founder. “We design, build and install cabinetry for retail stores, commercial casework projects and private homes.”
Corman’s father, the late Dan Corman, began creating window displays in 1947 for local department stores in downtown Lexington. Wolf Wile department store and Hymson’s Tot and Teens, both on East Main Street, were among his first customers, as was J.D. Purcell & Co. on West Main Street.
Dan Corman began manufacturing his display products in a small shop located in the Lexington Roller Mills building on Vine Street, roughly where the center court of Rupp Arena is now.
“With unique products to sell, he started working outside Kentucky, calling on the display managers at major department stores,” Ted Corman said.
Those major stores included Bergdorf Goodman, Marshall Field’s, Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue. Some displays were Christmas castles and chalets for the stores’ Santa Claus settings. Known as Corman Displays early on, the business moved to a manufacturing space on Floyd Drive in 1961.
Cordie Corman, seated at front, opened the Corman Marketplace, a year-round Christmas marketplace, with son Dan Corman in 1970.
“My grandmother, Cordie Corman, led craftwork classes in a space adjacent to the shop floor throughout the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s,” Ted Corman said. “Her students would ask if they could buy the Christmas decorations they saw, and in 1970 the Corman Marketplace was opened as a retail Christmas store. It is still open to the public today.”
While in-person sales account for 95 percent of Corman’s Christmas products, she said, some Christmas decor is also available online.
Corman started working with his dad as a teenager in the 1970s and has been president since 1988. He notes four significant changes over 75 years “that define who we are now,” he said.
The first was the opening of Corman Marketplace. Then, in 1999, Corman and Associates bought its first CNC (computer numerical control) machine. “With a full machining center now, many of the parts that make up our products are cut and finished before they go to a builder,” Corman said.
Creating a separate commercial casework department in 2013 opened up more projects, including hospitals, restaurants, college dorms and other non-retail ventures “where we work as a subcontractor for a general contractor instead of directly for the project’s owner,” he said.
In 2015, Corman Kitchen and Bath was announced as a stand-alone division. “While we have always done specialized work in homes, this opened a showroom and direct marketing to homeowners,” Corman said.
Beginning in the late 1980s, Corman’s started to see a decline in department store and mall clients due to mergers, shopping trends and urban redevelopment. “By the mid-2000s, what were once independent stores in most towns had become either Dillard’s or Macy’s,” Corman said, “steering us into becoming a mostly custom builder for what we call specialty retail.”
The client base for Corman and Associates now includes amusement parks, museums, the National Parks Service and military organizations. “The bourbon industry here in Kentucky is a great example where we’ve been fortunate to work with many distillers, developing their visitor centers, shops and tasting stations,” Corman said.
What hasn’t changed over the years? “The easy answer is our commitment to quality,” Corman said. “And while that’s true, for me it’s the opportunity to work with interesting people in many different parts of the world on such unique projects.”
The 36 employees at Corman and Associates include woodworkers, engineers, machine operators, designers and artists. Ted’s wife, Lorie Corman, is the buyer and manager for the Corman Marketplace. Their son Gates Corman runs the estimating for the commercial casework division. Corman is planning several celebrations for team members and their families and customer appreciation events.
After several decades of shipping a lot of work to locations outside Kentucky, Corman plans to increase the scope of in-state projects. He enjoys telling people about the wood cabinetry Corman has built for the visitor center at Buffalo Trace Distillery and LexLive in downtown Lexington, for example, projects he says resonate locally.
“Dropping names is well and good, but when they’ve been there themselves, the recognition and interest I see in their faces means more than anything,” he said. “Lexington has always been home for Corman and Associates. The city is big enough to be recognized by our national customers, yet we have relationships with our local business partners and neighbors that I can’t see happening in a big-city environment.”