Good Neighbor Podcast: North Shore
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of North Shore
Good Neighbor Podcast: North Shore
EP #67 - Metropolitan Cabinets & Countertops: Three Generations of Quality Manufacturing
Peter Laufer shares the 40-year history of Metropolitan Cabinets and Countertops, a third-generation family business with multiple showrooms across greater Boston. As manufacturers rather than dealers, they control quality, pricing, and timelines directly while working closely with contractors, architects, designers, and homeowners.
• Founded over 40 years ago by Stuart and Mike Elfland when they saw an opportunity after another cabinet company closed
• Specializes in manufacturing custom cabinets and countertops rather than reselling other products
• Maintains five showrooms throughout greater Boston, including a North Shore location in Wakefield
• Serves residential kitchens, apartment renovations, and multifamily construction projects
• Recognized as one of the 100 most charitable companies in Massachusetts
• Donates cabinets to Habitat for Humanity and supports various nonprofit causes
• Features a team of designers and project managers to ensure smooth project execution
To learn more, visit metcabinet.com, check out their popular Instagram page, or visit one of their showrooms Monday through Friday, where walk-ins are welcome.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Yvonne Godfrey.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Today we have the distinct pleasure of introducing Peter Laufer. He is a third generation owner of the Metropolitan Cabinets in Countertop. Peter, how are you today?
Speaker 3:I'm doing well, Yuan. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:It's a pleasure to have you. We are pleased to learn more about your family's company. Can you please tell our listeners about it?
Speaker 3:Yes, metropolitan Cabinets and Countertops is over 40 years old. We're third generation, family owned. We have a large factory located in Norwood and then five showrooms in greater Boston, one of which is actually in the North Shore, right in Wakefield.
Speaker 2:Beautiful. How did the company get into this business?
Speaker 3:So it was actually started by my father-in-law, stuart Elfland, and his father, mike Elfland, over 40 years ago. Mike worked for another company that actually closed and he and Stuart realized that there was a huge opening for a lot of the previous customers who needed cabinetry, so the two of them actually decided to start Metropolitan Cabinets and Countertops. Since then it's grown, obviously into multiple locations and we're now a full cabinet and countertop manufacturer.
Speaker 2:Beautiful, beautiful, are you only in the New England area?
Speaker 3:Yes, so one of the specialties that we do is we are responsible for meeting with the clients, measuring each kitchen. So one of the things about that is you have to be local to the different areas that you're in. So we really focus on the New England market and it's worked out very well for us.
Speaker 2:Beautiful. So what are some myths or misconception that you've discovered in this field?
Speaker 3:Well, I think a lot of people. If you look at the cabinet industry the majority of it, majority of the cabinet industry people are dealers, meaning they're buying someone else's product and reselling it to you, whereas we're actually a manufacturer, so we're making the product and selling it directly to the end user. Now we work very closely with contractors. We are a to-the-trade company, but we are making our product as opposed to buying it and reselling it. So we work very closely with contractors, architects, designers, as well as the homeowner to ensure that the project goes very well. We do a lot of residential kitchens, we have a division that does apartments for tenant turnover, and then we do multifamily new construction as well as handling countertop fabrication for all of these divisions.
Speaker 2:Beautiful, beautiful and outside of work. What does the company do in general within the community?
Speaker 3:Well, metropolitan Cabinet, for several years running, has been one of the 100 most charitable companies in the state of Massachusetts, which we're extremely proud of. We donate many cabinets to Habitat for Humanity and we're involved in numerous nonprofit causes that better help our community flourish.
Speaker 2:Beautiful. Can you please tell our listeners one thing they should remember about Metropolitan Cabinets and Countertops?
Speaker 3:Well, the big thing about us is that we are a manufacturer, so we're cutting out the middle person of buying and reselling the products, so we're able to control pricing, quality, sourcing, timeliness everything that really can go wrong. We've cut a lot of that out by being the manufacturer, which makes the contractors happy, the homeowners happy, architects, designers makes the job just go much more smoothly. We also have an unbelievable staff of talented designers, project managers, to make sure that everything goes smoothly from start to finish.
Speaker 2:Wonderful. So how can our listeners learn more about Metropolitan Cabinets and Countertop Peter?
Speaker 3:Well, our website is metcabinetcom. Our Instagram page is extremely popular, where we post a lot of our completed projects, and our showrooms are open Monday through Friday and we do welcome walk-ins, so you're able to peruse, talk to a designer and figure out if we're the right company for you.
Speaker 2:Awesome, Peter. We really appreciate you being on the show with us today. We thank you so much for the information and the feedback, and we wish Metropolitan Cabinets and Countertops all the very best moving forward.
Speaker 3:I really appreciate you having us and again, we're located right in Wakefield so we could service all of the North Shore. So we look forward to seeing you.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPNorthshorecom. That's GNPNorthshorecom, or call 857-703-9406.