As South Florida’s development boomed in the last five years, one appliance company was able to grow along with the market.
Fuse Specialty Appliances rose from humble beginnings to becoming a regional leader. The company’s trio of founders harnessed their connections, know-how, and grit to grow their business in leaps and bounds by providing specialized service to the region’s builders as demand for housing skyrocketed over the last five years. TRD sat down with Fuse’s founders to learn how the leading South Florida company grew from a specialty shop serving custom home builders to a regional appliance leader.
Building a Better Business
Fuse Specialty Appliances was created by three industry veterans with a shared vision. In 2018, Fuse founders Tim Brohawn, Alexa Warner, and Mike Robertson saw a growing desire in the South Florida builder community for a boutique luxury buying experience and struck out on their own to create a company to fill this niche.
Their timing couldn’t have been better. Fuse opened their first stores at a time when South Florida’s housing market was beginning to gather steam, giving the company the perfect opportunity to prove that its customer service-centric model was the future.
“We kind of stepped out to say, ‘Hey, we think we can solve a lot of the problems that have been plaguing this industry for a long time,’” recalls Roberston.
Previous industry leaders were weighed down with corporate bureaucracy that was often at odds with its customer base of mom and pop custom home builders. With Fuse, the founders created a locally owned appliance distributor that could work with builders on the community level to meet their unique needs.
The company’s founders leveraged their experience and existing partnerships to build a strong foundation of clients in South Florida from the get-go. Fuse opened its Fort Lauderdale and Naples locations in 2019, and the founders were just getting their new business off the ground when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and created another major opportunity to distinguish themselves from the competition.
Navigating Tough Times in Style
The supply chain issues created by the pandemic were the first major challenge the Fuse team faced. Fortunately for them and their clients, their vision of a nimble, community-based company was perfectly suited for the moment.
“One of the beauties of Fuse being a smaller, locally owned company was having fewer layers to get to decisions,” explains Warner. “We were able to pivot and make decisions as a team very quickly, which put us in a strong market position.”
For example, Fuse was able to protect its clients from the fallout caused by industry-wide back orders and lengthy lead times by working directly with vendors on what Warner describes as a “really aggressive storage program.” Fuse would stock months worth of product for specific clients as a buffer against supply chain uncertainty, allowing builders to stay on schedule throughout the construction process.
“We were able to take the time to understand what their needs were,” says Roberston, “and offer flexible arrangements to make sure that they didn’t miss their closings.”
This type of custom support makes Fuse an invaluable partner for builders, who need an appliance supplier they can rely on throughout the planning and construction process.
“Fuse has proven over the years to be a valuable supplier and contractor who we rely on heavily,” says Mark Leonard of The Williams Group, a luxury home builder based in Naples. “Their team is always there to stand behind what they offer with absolutely no reserve. Having a team member like that makes all the difference.”
As more builders began buying from Fuse, the company’s footprint expanded across South Florida.
Growing With South Florida
Fuse came to market at the perfect time. Florida’s business-friendly environment as well as its lack of state income tax made it a major migration destination in the wake of the pandemic, and demand for housing grew with the population, especially in Fuse’s South Florida home territory.
As the population boomed, so did demand for the company’s style of hands-on approach, and soon Fuse’s initial showrooms and warehouse space were not enough. Robertson recalls scrambling from warehouse to warehouse as the company grew more than 100% a month in the early days of the pandemic.
“While others were closing down their showrooms, we were building out our showrooms,” says Robertson.
Fuse opened locations in North Palm Beach in 2020 and Miami the year after, and then their Boca Raton showroom “five years to the day” after their Naples location. Each new location was chosen because Fuse already had salespeople and trade partners in the area who were demanding the company’s services.
“In the last five years, we went from the three of us working a showroom to just over 170 employees,” says Robertson. “It’s been a wild ride.”
With locations in Boca Raton, Fort Myers and Sarasota opening this year, Fuse has officially outgrown its humble beginnings, but the founders have made sure to preserve the nimble, direct management style that made the company so successful out of the gate.
“While we have evolved into a company that has a lot of bigger business type policies and procedures,” says Brohawn, “there are still a lot of ways where, if you need something done quickly, when you need an answer right away, we can get it to you.”
Fuse is now able to support not only mom and pop custom home builders, but the type of major condo development that is becoming increasingly common across South Florida.
“We’re coming in very strong in the vertical business,” says Warner. “We are fully ready to tackle that end of the business after having the success we’ve had in the custom business.”
Remaining Grounded in the Community
A major contributor to Fuse’s continued success was the company’s ability to secure the best local talent early and build on that foundation with smart hires along the way.
“We’ve got folks who have been here from the beginning,” says Brohawn. “They are as vested as Mike or Alex and I because they got in on the ground floor.”
Another way in which Fuse has cemented itself as South Florida’s leading family-owned appliance company is its charitable campaigns. For each of its locations, Fuse has raised money for a local service organization, giving back to the communities in which it works.
“At the grand opening of our North Palm Beach location, we raised over $40,000 for A Place of Hope,” recalls Brohawn. “For our Boca location, we work with a charity called Sweet Dreams, which provides bedding and beds to kids in need.”
If you’re a South Florida builder looking for a new appliance partner, reach out to Fuse today.