Today we’d like to introduce you to Max Homami.
Max, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Before the Iranian Revolution in the late 70’s, I moved my family from the Middle East to the U.S., where my wife and I started a new life living in New Jersey. The cold weather led us to California, where I ended up buying several businesses for my family to own, so they could move to the U.S. and gain traction to reestablish their lives here. I met two brothers, Jack and Aaron Kagan, in 1985 and bought their company, Westbrass. The company was founded in 1935 and was known as a major rep agency and plumbing wholesaler on the West Coast. Over the past 32 years, I’ve worked to make my vision flourish in expanding Westbrass’ products and customer base to become the leader in Kitchen & Bath Accessories.
Has it been a smooth road?
Of course not! When I bought Westbrass, I knew nothing about plumbing or the Kitchen & Bath industry. It was not easy. I had to learn everything from scratch, and make a ton of mistakes before getting to a place with as strong of a foundation as we have today. Thankfully, I’m now an old-timer who knows almost every detail of any product that will go in your kitchen or bathroom!
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Westbrass – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Westbrass is known for specializing in bath waste & overflow products. We currently manufacture our own products, and build and ship them directly out of our warehouse in Downtown LA. We have several patented items in addition to our plumbing specialty products and decorative finishes that are completely changing the traditional industry. I can confidently say that I am most proud of keeping Westbrass an ethical company, and trying to sell and produce more products in the U.S. This has been one of my major challenges; competing with Far East companies and manufacturers is very difficult when you need to keep your costs down. However, I believe that is what sets us apart from others- we are constantly looking for ways to increase business with companies in the U.S. and maintain the integrity of our vision. I’m also proud of the family we’ve built at Westbrass- we are a very small company and all rely on working closely together to grow. I’ve always told my employees that family comes first and have made sure to cultivate a corporate culture that nurtures and reinforces that. I’ve also had my own family work at Westbrass, as my son worked for the business for years and my daughter recently joined the company 9 months ago. Through blood or not, every one of our employees is family.
What are your plans for the future? What are you looking forward to or planning for – any big changes?
Our main plans for the future are to continue growing our business within the U.S. and decreasing our reliance on overseas suppliers. Ideally, we would love to manufacture all of our products in the U.S. over time. We’ve already made huge changes over the years—we used to sell thousands of products, and offered them in 39 different finishes. Now, we have expanded, specialized and concentrated our products and have more products, but have cut back to 9 decorative finishes. We are now successfully selling our drains to the majority of tub manufacturers in the U.S. and plan to continue supporting American-made products and companies. As of 2017, we’ve had more employees than ever before, and only plan to continue growing!
Contact Info:
- Address: 2429 E. Olympic Blvd.
- Website: www.westbrass.com
- Phone: 2136278441
- Email: [email protected]
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/westbrass/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel
Image Credit:
Images by Michelle Homami
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