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The Columbus Blue Jackets are excited to partner with First Merchants Bank to recognize small businesses in our community. Each month throughout the season, one company will be featured as the Small Business of the Month presented by First Merchants Bank. January's Small Business of the Month is Distinctive Kitchen.

Jon Rupert has turned Distinctive Kitchen from a business of eight employees to one that requires more than 150, while retaining many of the staff members from when he first walked in the building during his college years.

Distinctive Kitchen is a countertop fabricator and cabinet distributor, specializing in building and installing granite, quartz and other countertops. From remodeling to distributing their own cabinets that they manufacture, they're experts in all things related to kitchen redesigns.

Rupert, who is the owner of Distinctive Kitchen, started out in 2002 as a laborer in the shop making new countertops for others to put into kitchens and purchased the business in 2013.

“I worked here when I was in school as a part-time guy," he said. "Just to get some beer money on the weekends, I'd come over and help build countertops. After I graduated, I moved on and worked for some bigger countertop companies. I really got to know the industry and traveled all over.”

Although the business has grown, he still feels as though it is like working in the same shop he stepped into many years ago.

“We still have five of the original eight,” Rupert said. “We just sit back and tell some of the crazy stories that we had to experience. It's really neat to watch and see what it is today and know kind of the blood, sweat and tears that kind of went in to grow in it.”

Keeping most of the original employees of a company that first opened in 1994 was a focus of Rupert. Now, those employees are the bosses and have grown with the company.

“Those five guys are the guys," he said. "They're the ones running the company now, so they've all moved up, and they're the ones that are in charge of day-to-day operations. We're tight. I couldn't do it without them. We're like a family more than we are coworkers. We do it for each other, not for a paycheck, and that's what makes it special."

Rupert has immense pride in the growth of Distinctive Kitchen and how he has been able to take the previous owner’s dream and make it a reality.

“We went from just another person in the business to now we're one of the largest in the region, in the Midwest,” Rupert said.

Rupoert and employees from Distinctive Kitchen were in attendance and recognized during Thursday's game vs. Seattle, and it was a familiar feeling for most of them as they helped with the recent renovation to the Nationwide Arena locker rooms and club level.

During their time at the game, they witnessed a 6-2 Blue Jackets win over the Kraken and had a pregame meet-and-greet with anthem singer Leo Welsh.

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