Imperial Opens Door to National Market

Barry Ozturk had quite a surprise when he settled in to watch an episode of “The Sopranos” last season.
The president of Imperial Doors in Springdale was in Long Island, N.Y., the week before sealing a deal and immediately recognized the wedding venue of New York mob boss Johnny Sac’s daughter.
Ozturk’s job was with Leonard’s of Greatneck, the setting for most of the weddings and gala events filmed for HBO’s mafia drama. The owner was so impressed with Ozturk’s work on the spectacular 6-foot by 11-foot iron entry doors and transoms he has reenlisted Imperial for 20 sets of interior doors, lower level entry doors and railings. Ozturk even installed a door at the owner’s home.
The total Leonard’s project will net Imperial Doors around $100,000 once the work is complete this summer.
Ozturk was also referred to the funeral home often used on “The Sopranos,” and its owner even asked for a discount based on the show’s popularity.
Ed Sanders of the popular show “Extreme Home Makeover” has approached Ozturk about work on a wood door for his personal home and the show has twice asked him to donate doors to their projects, but the timeframe has been too narrow to turn around one of his custom products.
Imperial Doors is less than three years old, but Ozturk has quickly grown his custom wrought iron company into one of the top five in the nation.
Although Imperial Doors has installed custom iron doors in entire subdivisions in Northwest Arkansas such as Pinnacle Gardens and Bridge View Estates, only 10 percent of its business comes from this area.
Ozturk does 25 percent of his work in the Northeast, mainly in Manhattan, Philadelphia and Boston. He renovates brownstones in Brooklyn and condominiums in London.
He’s done business across the country from Chicago to California and from Texas to Florida.
His doors are hurricane-proof — a big selling point in Florida — and his upscale market is recession-proof, he said.
A custom door can raise the value of a home by as much as 6 percent, Ozturk said.
Ozturk said his company sells about 600 doors a year with the least expensive starting around $3,000. Depending on the size and detail of the custom portal, the price can reach $10,000 and more.
“When people are spending $3 million, $4 million, $5 million on a home, $5,000 to $10,000 for a door is nothing,” Ozturk said.
He recently sold a brass door to a business on Madison Ave. in Manhattan for $25,000. When Ozturk finishes a project, word usually spreads about Imperial Doors to neighboring businesses, hotels, restaurants and condos that may be renovating and want a custom entryway.
“People there do a lot of decorative, custom work,” Ozturk said. “That’s been a huge market from word-of-mouth. People will pay $1 [million] to $2 million for a house, demolish it and build a $3 million home on top of it. That’s where we come in.”
Imperial Doors creates and installs custom entry doors and transoms, stair railings, interior doors, wine cellar doors, balcony doors and railings in a variety of styles from Old World to Mediterranean to Classic.
He started his factory in Monterrey, Mexico, two-and-a-half years ago with five skilled ironworkers. The factory has grown to 35 employees and has a 10,000-SF warehouse.
Although many of his competitors are shifting their manufacturing to China to take advantage of lower material and labor costs, Ozturk has no plans to change his operation.
While others in the market aim for mass production, Ozturk will retain his custom-built model and his quality control by keeping his factory in North America.
He has made — or is in the process of making — distribution deals with high-end lumberyards in North Carolina, South Carolina, Denver, Long Island and Jacksonville, Fla. He also plans to open a store this summer in Dallas, where he moved from Blackpool, England, at age 16.
“I’m going for places where the traffic is the same kind of people who buy high-end doors,” he said.
His first Manhattan client was the product of $12,000 Ozturk spent on a full-page ad in the Robb Report, a luxury home magazine. The client, who owns more than a $250 million worth of real estate, made a first impression on Ozturk by crouching down to see if the “guy from Arkansas” was wearing shoes.
He has since purchased $50,000 worth of Ozturk’s products.
Ozturk worked for AT&T for seven years in Northwest Arkansas managing accounts all over the south, including the Wal-Mart account. While he and his wife Misty, who operates Dead Swanky in Fayetteville, were shopping for a home, they couldn’t put a finger on why none were appealing.
Then it hit them.
The doors.
“The door is the first thing people see when they come to your house,” he said. “We were looking to buy a house and the worst thing about them was the door.”
The couple eventually decided to build a home in the Summersby neighborhood in east Fayetteville and Ozturk learned a friend in England had an uncle in Indonesia producing custom iron doors.
Ozturk had been contemplating leaving the corporate world for some time and after he purchased the door and found it to be low quality, he had the inspiration for Imperial Doors.
“I knew there was a market for this,” he said. “Our quality is good. Our people are excellent. We have the ability to grow.”