Max Kothari, owner of Hartford-based kitchen furnishings maker Express Kitchens, has been making moves.
His most recent came in early March, when he purchased a massive and empty manufacturing complex in downtown Bristol for $6.2 million to serve as a distribution hub for his growing business.
Kothari bought the 15-acre property, at 18 Main St., from Bristol-based aerospace manufacturer Barnes Group. It includes a 58,804-square-foot office and warehouse building, and a 224,977-square-foot, one-story manufacturing facility.
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Kothari plans to use the vacant Bristol campus, which will employ about 50 people to start, as a distribution site, with “high-tech” manufacturing and corporate offices for his Express Kitchens and New Direct Cabinets businesses. He said he also plans to open a roughly 10,000-square-foot retail outlet on-site.
Kothari — who also chairs the Hartford Chamber of Commerce board of directors — grew his company significantly in 2023 when he acquired New Jersey-based Direct Cabinet Sales, a deal that also included New Jersey-based Seifer Kitchens and Brooklyn-based Golden Reiss Kitchens.
The acquisition added five showrooms in New York and New Jersey to Express Kitchens’ network of 12 showrooms in Connecticut and Massachusetts. It also added a 165,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Dayton, New Jersey.
Today, Express Kitchens and Direct Cabinet Sales have 17 retail locations in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey.
In addition to its own retail locations, Express Kitchens supplies cabinets to Home Depot, as well as directly to large developers, including Toll Brothers and Winn Management.