Business Activity

Decor Grates Inc. manufactures imports and distributes decorative floor and wall registers to the residential market. The company’s products are made from a variety of materials, such as solid brass, hard woods (Oak and Maple), plated steel (with a brass finish), chrome, antique brass, brushed pewter, powder-coated steel and plastic in a variety of styles and sizes.

After a few years of producing their signature ‘Decor Scroll’ register in brass, Decor Grates recognized that decorative floor registers had come of age. Consumers were looking for innovative enhancements for their homes; decorative floor registers provided a unique finishing touch for the insightful home decorator.

decor-grates-founder

FOUNDERS:
TIKVA OOSTERHUIS (“TIKI”)
RALPH OOSTERHUIS (“RALPH”)

Decor Grates knew that the key to success was versatility in the market; providing new grate styles and sizes in a range of materials would help satisfy the decorating needs of North American consumers and would assist Decor Grates in their initiative to become the dominant one-stop supplier of decorative floor registers.

Decor Grates made the strategic decision to allocate large sums of company funding towards the development of tooling necessary to create the most diverse product line possible, separating Decor Grates from its competitors. Metal stamping dies and plastic injection molds were built and the company invested in the development of colourful, eye-catching and informative tri-lingual (English, French and Spanish) packaging to better suit the North American market.

In 1998, Decor Grates initiated a woodworking division to develop a line of wood registers in anticipation of the market trend towards wood flooring; in 1999, the company realized plastic registers were becoming more popular. Because of the versatility and relative low-cost of plastic, Decor Grates foresaw a profitable opportunity in the plastic register market. As a result, Decor Grates purchased Best Dressed Homes, a start-up Canadian company producing a line of plastic registers. Around the same time, Decor Grates began development of a line of Decorative wall registers in response to ongoing requests for the product – a concept that no other manufacturer had explored at that time.

From its inception, Decor Grates has focused on providing a high quality register line in a range of styles and pricing to meet the decorating requirements and budgets of all consumers. Knowing that consumer satisfaction would lead to success for Decor Grates, the company adopted a philosophy geared towards anticipating the needs of its customers.

Over the past five years, Decor Grates has developed an extensive data database on the geographical distribution of register sizes preferred in regions across North America as well as the decorating habits of the home owner. This consumer-driven philosophy has been an integral part of Decor Grates’ development and a cornerstone in its ability to stand apart from the competition. The results speak for themselves. Decor Grates has grown in style selection from its signature Decor Scroll design at inception, to a product line with countless styles, sizes and finishes to please consumers from coast to coast. Decor Grates has gained recognition as a market leader and many of the major retailers in North America distribute its products.