Framing Suppliers y/n

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According to this link, they've been in business at least since October of 2002:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HMU/is_11_29/ai_94769298/

I've never dealt with them but they are showing up as a distributor of matboard, etc. on supplier pages.

Their website leaves a lot to be desired (mine does too, right now), but perhaps they're just starting on that. Looks like the website registration started in November. Intuit web page.

Other than that...no experience with them as far as I can remember.

They're not in Mississippi according to the website....they're in Alabama.
 
Well, let's see. Their web site appears to be a template, and it shows an interior with NO frames on the walls. The links on the home page go to sub-pages with NO text on them. So far, it doesn't instill a lot of confidence.
:shrug: Rick
 
I have used Framing Suppliers for the last 3 or 4 years. Good people, small company. They distribute mainly other lines and have a few imports of their own as. They truck deliver to me once a week here in New Orleans. Ask for Scott, the GM, or Rich, their rep.
 
Kyle Henson said:
I have used Framing Suppliers for the last 3 or 4 years. Good people, small company. They distribute mainly other lines and have a few imports of their own as. They truck deliver to me once a week here in New Orleans. Ask for Scott, the GM, or Rich, their rep.
Click to expand...

Ditto what Kyle said..we use them for chops ( no truck delivery this far ) as an alternative supplier and they have been very good to us for about 5 years now..Scott is super and all the people are very nice..we met them at trade show several years ago in Atlanta.
 
They are/were our major supplier and had a truck deliver to us. They are having REAL problems right now, sometimes they will call and say no delivery as there is not enough to be profitable.

I think they are in a vicious circle spiraling downwards, they are not carrying as much and are frequently out of stock. Two weeks ago they didn't have any of the 4 different sizes of glass, most of our mats or the correct foamcore! I know they are trying to save money but if they don't have what you need you've got to go elsewhere.

We used to get 2 trucks a week now only one, if they have enough to warrant sending a truck.
 
You will never find a nicer staff of workers. I'll just say that the major vendors are putting the squeeze on the "little" distributors and causing all kinds of problems. They're ridding this awful economy out just like the rest of us. And I'll give them all the business I can. It's good business for us to support the smaller suppliers in our area when we can. I'll let them know about the website in the A.M. Thanks
 
Think about a world that has no small suppliers, only big ones who will tell you how they are going to sell. For example, 100' minimums, 25 sheet minimums, etc. That is how it was at one time in our industry. It was the small distributors who started selling one stick or one sheet at a time, who offered chop service, not the big guys.

Think twice before you abandon the small outfits. Once there are only a few big ones left standing, they will be calling the shots, and you will not like it.

John
 
I completely agree about supporting the smaller suppliers and Framing Suppliers has good prices and for the most part are easy to deal with.
But, they are really struggling and seem to be making business decisions that are helping them go out of business.
It doesn't help them or us when they are out of stock on most of our order and don't call about outages until it's too late to order from another supplier and get it on time for the customer.

I don't know what the answer is as everyone seems to be struggling and having supply issues doesn't help.
 
rmehoves said:
They are/were our major supplier and had a truck deliver to us. They are having REAL problems right now, sometimes they will call and say no delivery as there is not enough to be profitable.

I think they are in a vicious circle spiraling downwards, they are not carrying as much and are frequently out of stock. Two weeks ago they didn't have any of the 4 different sizes of glass, most of our mats or the correct foamcore! I know they are trying to save money but if they don't have what you need you've got to go elsewhere.

We used to get 2 trucks a week now only one, if they have enough to warrant sending a truck.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. I think i will start dealing with them in the very near future. I talked to "Adrian" yesterday... she was very nice and easy to get along with. :icon19:
 
No matter who you deal with, in todays business climate, you can expect out of stocks and discontinued items.

Think about what the owners of these supply houses are going through. They do not get to order a few thousand dollars worth of anything, they have to spend in huge amounts like ten or twenty thousand to keep their warehouses fully stocked.

There are no business loans available, no lines of credit to keep everything running smoothly as there was a few years ago. Everything they have, must come from cash on hand Do you honestly think a small supplier keeps ten or twenty thousand on hand all the time?

Our president says he is going to give small regional banks 30 billion dollars so they can make loans to small businesses. He also said he gave those billions to the big banks to help people stay in their homes.

There will be no help to any small businesses anytime soon, other than a few photo op crumbs thrown to a couple of them.

Our suppliers are on their own, just like us. Buy what they have and what you can from them. When things start improving in a few years, you will be glad you did.

John
 
They are located just south of Birmingham, AL.

I've been using them for 4 years. They are a good company. I stock half a dozen of their mouldings and probably have 50+ of their samples on the wall. They make it easy for me to buy as much or as little of each moulding as I want. They deliver to me on a company truck each week. I buy all of my museum glass from them.

From time to time they have moulding availability issues, just like everyone else. However they have been working hard to find new sources and make purchasing alliances with other distributors so that they can place moulding orders more often and have a lower lead time. I have seen a big decrease in outages in the mouldings that I sell from them over the last year.

Yes, they have been having some supply issues with glass and matboard. They discontinued carrying Bainbridge mats completely. I have adjusted to this by ordering glass a week or two earlier than I used to, to be sure that I'll have it restocked before I run out, and I order all my Bainbridge mats from another supplier.

As the previous poster said, it costs a lot for them to order some of these supplies. I think a good chunk of their trouble actually stems from small frame shops owing them thousands of dollars and not paying. I know of one shop that went out of business not long ago while owing them something like $10k. Hard to do well when your customers place orders but don't pay.

As for the Obama loans, I had high hopes until I spoke to several local banks about it. The government won't fully back the loans, so the banks are sticking with their normal loan evaluation practices. That means they aren't going to loan money to anyone they wouldn't have loaned money to 3 years or 5 years ago. In effect, the government program doesn't affect the way the banks do business and is a non-factor in virtually all loan decisions. This is according to multiple local banks. Of course, legislation can always change things and the money COULD become useful if the banks are given some incentive to actually loan it out.
 
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