Business: JC Licht
Address: 419 S. Washington St., Naperville
Phone/website: 630-961-1771, www.jclicht.com
Store manager: Jan Marder, 64, of Joliet
Years in business: 49
What does your business do? “When you’re remodeling your home, one of the easiest and relatively cheapest ways to give your house a whole new look is through paint. You can feel like you’re in a different house,” Marder said.
How has roadwork on Washington Street impacted your business? “It’s crazy, but nothing we can do about it. … I didn’t know it would take this long.”
What’s the background? “Jacob Christian Licht opened (his first paint store) in Chicago in 1907 in Chicago. … Elliott Greenburg purchased (the) JC Licht (chain) in 2015. We now have 65 stores. … For 15 years I managed a paint store in Massachusetts that sold Benjamin Moore. … I’ll be the manager here two years in January.
What challenges do you face? “Our biggest competitor is Sherwin Williams. Our paint is just better. Even the people at Sherwin will admit that. Better quality. Our prices are higher than theirs, but we have a plethora of different price points. … Our paint is made at Ben Moore in New Jersey. Sherwin Williams, their paint is outsourced.”
What about box stores? “People who work at stores that just sell paint are more knowledgeable. Trained well. If you go to a box store, you could get a person who works in the plumbing department.”
What sets your paint apart? “Some of it is our Gennex Color Technology. When the VOC laws changed — Volatile Organic Compound — in the early 2000s, every paint company had to meet the standards. Benjamin Moore came up with Gennex. The old colorant degraded the quality of the paint. This actually enhances it. It’s pretty cool. That’s one of our advantages. It tends to not fade as much.”
What’s the best paint here? “Aura is our top-of-the-line paint. At first, a lot of the contractors did not like it because it dries a lot faster. … It sells for $99.99 a gallon.”
Do you like your job? “I love what I do. I love helping people with their projects. Sometimes, I get pictures. They’ll come back and show me. They love doing that.”
Any negatives? “Occasionally, you’ll have somebody who’s not happy. I look at that as a challenge. First, I let them vent. But usually I have not had many times where I can’t turn it around to a plus. … Sometimes, it just takes a coat of a new color. … It harkens back to the fact that as a young girl, my dad and I painted around the house. He’s super handy. He taught me to do a lot of things.”
How many colors do you offer? “Hundreds. In fact, some people get overwhelmed. We have a designer on staff. Not every store has this. Lesli Hoffman helps people with color and with wallpaper, which is so hot right now. We sell a lot of wallpaper. … We have a service, Color At Home. We come into a house and help a person decide the colors. There’s a fee for it, $250, but you get a $100 voucher for your paint. That’s not bad.”
What does the designer say? “We try to give the designer experience to every client by finding and accenting each individual’s personal aesthetic,” Hoffman said.
Wallpaper is big? “It is. On an accent wall. A bathroom. Maybe behind a bookcase,” Marder said. “It’s what draws the people in. We also sell window treatments. … Window treatments never really go out of favor.”
Is paint your biggest seller? “Yes. We’re a paint store. Window treatment and wallpaper are 40 percent of the sales.”
What do you tell customers? “Take (paint) chips home. Put them on a wall. Look at them in three different lights. At night when a lamp is on. During the day when the sun is shining. Then on a gloomy cloudy day. If you love it in all three lights, it’s a winner.”
What’s hot? “Grays were big for a long time. They’re falling out of favor. It’s trending to warmer colors now.”
What does a customer say? “The people here know what they are doing. … I’m looking at wallpaper (today),” Kathleen Cooley, 81, of Yorkville, said.
What’s your advice for someone starting a business? “Don’t be afraid to invest in what you see as the future. You have to go for it. But hard work is the key. More than anything, I’d say.”’
Steve Metsch is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun. If you know of a business you’d like to see profiled in Down to Business, contact him at metschmsfl@yahoo.com.
