Win-Door Provides Showcase for Canadian Suppliers

Canadian suppliers took center stage at Win-Door North America in Toronto last week, with several rolling out new products. The annual trade show, sponsored by the Canadian Window & Door Manufacturers Association, featured more than 170 exhibitors and attracted about 3,000 people.

Some of the biggest news at the show came on the door side, with Royal Group Technologies using the event to launch RoyalPlast Door Systems. The new unit combines the door operations of Thermoplast, the Quebec-based vinyl extruder it acquired several years ago, with Royal’s own patio door operations, based in Ontario, explained Yvan Houle, who heads up the new business. The change brings together a significant amount of door expertise, he added, and the company will be able to serve vinyl fabricators throughout North America with nine different product lines and a wide choice of product programs.

Novatech Glass Inc., the supplier of doors, doorlites and other components, featured a variety of new products at the event, including new fiberglass doors with both woodgrain and smooth finish options. The Quebec-based company was also launching a new entry door system featuring a multipoint lock. Designed to meet the needs of pre-hanger customers, the doors are supplied with the multipoint hardware pre-installed by the company, explained Michel Balfour, who manages sales for the company in Quebec. The pre-hanger only installs the handleset and trim hardware, he noted.

Door Com Distribution is a new operation that showed its wares in Toronto. A division of Wintek Industries, a manufacturer of patio and garden doors, the company is targeting pre-hangers as a just-in-time supplier of slabs, sills, doorlites, hardware and all types of door components.

On the window side, vinyl extruder Plastmo Ltd. used the event to promote two new casement window designs. Thermoplast, which now focuses on windows, was showing what has become a popular option in the Canadian market—aluminum-clad vinyl windows. Quebec-based extruder Quadraplast took that product a step further, showcasing a hybrid casement window design that can be fabricated as a vinyl-only window, an aluminum-clad vinyl unit, a vinyl unit with wood cladding on the interior and finally, a vinyl window with aluminum on the outside and wood on the inside.

Sika Canada was showing a new hybrid product, combining polyurethane and silicone technology.

Although many of the show’s exhibitors were based in Canada, U.S. exhibitors as well returned to Win-Door this year. Among those featuring new products, was Kenyon’s Stained Glass Factory, which featured its Metalist series decorative glass designed to offer the look of wrought iron, with a wider choice of designs. The designs are created out of a single sheet of aluminum, noted Chris Kenyon, president of the company, and offer the advantage of no extra weight compared to real wrought iron.

The Win-Door trade show occurs in conjunction with the CWDMA fall meeting. Offering an update on the group, Robert LaTour of Novatech, the group’s current chairman, noted that CWDMA is moving to a new management organization, the Wood Manufacturing Council, but one with familiar faces, as the change means the return of Richard Lipman and Jennifer Reed to the association staff.

The group has also formed a new government relations committee, he noted. One of its goals is to do a better job following provincial code activities and making sure that they mandate the same sort of test methodologies, so manufacturers don’t have to re-test. He also noted that as a door manufacturer he’d like to see a more standardized approach developed for rating these products. CWDMA held a successful series of educational programs across Canada earlier this year, he noted, and it will repeat those in 2007. It is also looking to add webinars to the mix, with the first focusing on the new Ontario Building Code requirements.

Prior to the meeting, Andy Brethour, an economist and business consultant, offered a forecast for the Canadian economy, noting that the outlook for next year “depends on where you are.” Western Canada is booming, and will continue to perform “to roar” thanks to the energy-based economy in Alberta and continued growth in British Columbia. Ontario and Quebec, on the other hand, won’t slide into recession but it will “feel like one,” Brethour predicted. Manufacturers will see diminishing markets in these provinces, and are likely see further declines until the U.S. economy starts to improve.