LAHAINA, Maui – Jeff Kaiser has always had a strong work ethic, not to mention a keen sense of when to pivot his business. These traits have served him well over the last three decades as owner and operator of Volcano Crators, a premier crate provider to Maui’s fine art industry.
When winter turned particularly harsh in 1988, he decided to venture from Friday Harbor, Washington to take a friend up on a proposition. Anytime you want to come to sunny Maui for a few weeks, a friend had said, there’s a couch here waiting for you. It was an offer that would change his life.
Kaiser learned how to do woodworking in the mid-1980s living on the West Coast. Three years later he traveled to Lahaina, and within a few days after his arrival, he found work as a shipping agent for an art company. The art company had hundreds of empty crates from incoming art – enough to fill up a good portion of the warehouse. Kaiser saw an opportunity to save space and reduce new crating costs by repurposing old crates. He convinced the owner that if he bought a compressor, some pneumatic nailers and a panel saw, he could modify the existing crates and avoid having to purchase new ones.
Working outside the building in the parking lot, he quickly caught the attention of a rival gallery which then asked if he could also do crating for them. With the blessing of his employer, he took on jobs for other companies to do on his days off, and eventually found himself with so much work that he took a leap of faith and started Volcano Crators.
Business Changes During Economic Slumps
The small business thrived, but as a luxury industry, fine art is sensitive to economic downturns. When the recession of 2008 struck, tourism-related art purchases plummeted – along with the retail portion of the crating business. At the same time, many people were selling their vacation homes. Kaiser’s wife, Jill, a Maui realtor, became instrumental in connecting Jeff with house sellers to manage the crating and shipment of their fine art objects back to the mainland. Word also quickly spread to other realtors in Maui. By this point in time, Volcano Crators had developed a national reputation for its capabilities in art installation and transfers. Kaiser could easily shift the business focus in that direction. Because of that pivot, in 2009 the business ended up enjoying its second highest revenue year ever.
Then came 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic. Maui’s tourism-generated art industry again took a major hit, followed by exploding lumber prices in 2021. Kaiser said that his material costs leapt 400% in a week. While customers have always perceived crate prices to be high, he noted, the increased lumber prices pushed them through the roof. He was faced with increased price resistance at a time he was looking to reduce his work-load. Once again, it was time for a change.
“Things change,” he reflected. “My business model and business plan changed as well. It really has been a key critical survival tool.”
Since 2021, Volcano Crators has been focusing exclusively on high-end art installations and transfers. For example, Kaiser recently has been providing services to a longtime client who had sold his $45 million property in nearby Wailea. “I can focus on these exclusive jobs that I have a lot of enjoyment doing,” he concluded, “and it gives me some free time to spend with my family, with my grandchildren here on beautiful Maui.”
Rush Job: Crating a 4-Foot Fragile Statue
Usually, Jeff Kaiser, quipped, the scenario is something like this. The gallery calls on Wednesday and the art object has to ship by Friday. In this case, the piece of art was a 4-foot high statue on a granite base. The definition of asymmetry, the fragile artwork has flowing wings, hair and limbs and with a narrow stem that is anchored in a heavy granite base. It was made of marble cast (a mixture of fine marble and epoxy then casting or pouring it into the mold.) If a part is broken, it is extremely difficult if not impossible to repair.
The statue, valued at $50,000, was being sent from Lahaina to Dallas, Texas. Kaiser explained that he is a visual thinker, so he really likes to see the artwork in person and then take pictures and measure. Then he typically goes back to his office to design a crate. For perplexing projects, sometimes he comes up with designs in his sleep after going to bed mulling about a particular problem.
For this project he built a simple plywood box. The granite base was anchored by wood bracing wrapped in closed cell polyurethane foam, resting on a 7/16" corrugated sheet as well as another foam layer. Similarly, other polyurethane wrapped pieces of wood bracing support various parts of the statue to prevent movement or abrasion. No desiccant was required for this project, he noted, as the statue material was not absorbent.
“Each job is unique,” he explained.
Volcano Crators uses tip & tell and shock-watch indicators to monitor damage on shipments. See a gallery of the company’s unique packaging solutions at www.volcanocrators.com.
