Express Kitchens owner finds warm welcome in Bristol
Express Kitchens is on the site of the former Associated Spring on South Street
by Mike Chaiken-July 14, 2025
The owner of Express Kitchens expressed his delight with his company’s arrival in Bristol –and the treatment his company has received from local officials.
Hitesh “Max” Kothari attended the Wednesday, July 9 meeting of Bristol’s Economic and Community Development Board and spoke to the city panel about his company, which manufactures kitchen cabinetry, and the company’s relocation to the old Associated Spring building at 18 Main St.
The Associated Spring building became available when the corporate owner, the Barnes Group, was sold to Apollo Funds for $3.6 billion in January.
Kothari said his decision to consider Bristol for his business began rather casually.
“I have twin boys and my wife. After dinner, on a Sunday, I told them let’s go take a ride. There’s a building in Bristol I’d like to drive by,” said Kothari.
That Sunday drive, however, piqued Kothari’s interest in Bristol.
“What happened is I took a wrong turn by coming up this way, and I somehow ended up in… this downtown area. And when I saw the City Hall, when I saw the building (the Carrier development on North Main Street) across the street and then I started seeing that somebody’s putting some kind of puzzle (of economic development) together over here that gave me a lot of confidence that this is not downtown that’s on its way down. This is something that somebody’s taking some serious steps to revive … (This gave me) confidence that we should buy a building of this magnitude– because this is a big buy. This is a major investment for me,” said Kothari.
The CEO of Express Kitchens also explained how Economic and Community Development executive director Justin Malley and Mayor Jeffrey Caggiano made him feel welcome and wanted in the community.
Kothari said he was visiting the Associated Spring building and called to set up an appointment with Malley to talk about the building. Discovering that Kothari was in town, Malley immediately invited him to meet him at City Hall. Malley quickly brought Kothari in to meet with Caggiano.
Kothari said he was impressed by the treatment he received from the mayor, Malley and the local officials once efforts began to bring Express Kitchens operations to the city.
Kothari, now 60, said his entry into the world of business began when he opened a hardware store in the North End of Hartford when he was 25.
“I started Express Kitchens a few years back,” the CEO explained.
“Today,” he said, “we have 12 stores in four different states. We do supplies (of cabinetry, too) … There are trucks pulling up from Michigan and Texas that are picking up cabinets for Home Depot right from this plant… We also sell to big builders like Toll Brothers (which is listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange).”
“We did an acquisition for a pretty sizable company in New Jersey where we were manufacturing cabinets over there. I will move that (operation) to Bristol,” said Kotari.
Currently, Kothari said there are about 50 people employed in the Bristol building. He said the plan is to add another 50 or so.
Malley noted that Express Kitchens is also bringing in state-of-the-art technology to build its kitchen cabinets. The equipment will automate the process.
“it’s just like a Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory there,” said Malley referring to the chocolatier in the famous children’s novel by Roald Dahl. “It’s pretty interesting.”
However, Kothari said installation of the equipment has been slow because of changes in immigration policy—the technicians needed to install the equipment are relegated to instructing workers in Connecticut via Zoom on how to handle the task.
Kothari told the ECD board he is aware of the economic and community legacy of the Barnes Group.
“They have deep roots, and they truly care,” said Kothari. “In fact, (Tom Barnes, the former chair of the Barnes Group) and his wife and I and my wife, we had dinner together. They’re good people… I would like to try to make sure that legacy (of the Barnes family) comes through with what we do.”
