CR Home an Atlanta Showroom Favorite for 50 Years

It’s not hard to define Construction Resources (CR Home), but just know that it will take a few minutes. After all, 50 years under their belt has provided them plenty of time to grow their company to include the building and remodeling industry’s best brands, installation services and people, and net clients that span from $10 million custom homes to corporate clients and multi-family housing. It didn’t happen overnight, but it’s a labor of love that brothers Sonny and Mitch Hires are extremely proud of.

“My dad started this company with cultured marble in 1970,” says Mitch Hires. “We used to joke that it wasn’t fair other teenagers got to spend their summers being lifeguards, while we were stuck drilling holes in marble tops. But when I came to work here and manage things for my dad after college, I felt vested. I had a lot of pride and passion about doing things the right way because it had my family’s name on it.”

The brothers soon bought out their dad’s partner and officially made it the family business. They, along with partners Jody Horne and Robert Schoen, grew the business from $1 million in sales to $55 million in sales in one decade. Today, there are currently 11 companies under the CR Home umbrella, curated through long-standing partnerships, practical mergers and private equity investment resulting in 2020 revenue eclipsing $300 million with 750 employees across five states.

“I’m really proud of the fact that we’ve been able to get to the second generation,” says Mitch. “It’s an accomplishment. My dad never really got to see that—he would think that we were crazy, but it’s been a good ride.” That ride culminates in the 60,000-square-foot design campus in Decatur. The 10-building, 17-acre space allows CR’s customers to experience a one-stop-shop, starting with the 32,000-square-foot showroom.

“We’re a multiproduct, multisegment company, and to fully grasp what Construction Resources is, you need to see it,” says Mitch. “Our clients, they’re the kind of people who don’t just want to hear about how fantastic a Wolf range looks with Calacatta Gold countertops. They want to see it—that’s what we can show them through the design center.”

They also exhibit how that focus on the customer earns them an award-winning reputation.

“We’re doing everything we can to elevate the customer experience,” says Mitch. “We [designed a selection process] that is well- lit, quiet and easy to work in, and we bring in products from all over the world, direct, [allowing us to] provide aesthetically pleasing products that other people don’t have.”

That includes the campus’ brightest feature, the CR Home Lighting Gallery. Stocked with hundreds of traditional and modern fixtures, plus fireplaces and garage doors, clients and designers utilize product specialists to find what works for their project.

Outside of Decatur is CR’s most recent award-winning brand, Sewell Appliance. With a reputation that dates further back than CR’s foundation, it boosts the CR portfolio with the widest variety of brands and some of the most seasoned experts.

“In 50 years—in all that’s changed—there’s one constant, and that’s a focus on the people,” says Mitch. “Our commitment to our customers, our employees and to the relationships that we form, that’s what my brother and I are most proud of.”

Amidst perks offered to clients at CR Home’s Design Campus in Decatur, the newest addition will soon make shopping for a project even easier.

“Before, when a client would come in needing a small piece of stone for their vanity, we’d have to walk them through what we called, ‘The Boneyard,’” says Mitch Hires. “It wasn’t very glamorous, not to mention efficient.

Now, we’ve built a space that is organized, well-lit and shops like a gallery, so our clients can safely browse our inventory of unique sizes and shapes of stone.”

Not just that—the CR Overstock Gallery (set to open in 2021) will also include lighting, tile, scratch-and-dent appliances and more.

Construction Resources, www.constructionresourcesusa.com, 224 Rio Cir., Decatur, 404.378.3132.

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