W&D Weekly - February 6, 2008 | Vol 3, Num 6
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Market Downturn Leads to Cut Backs at Wheeler’s
Wheeler’s Building Materials, a Georgia-based distributor of building materials with window manufacturing operations, recently announced a new round of layoffs and the closing of a number of locations...
Wheeler’s Building Materials, a Georgia-based distributor of building materials with window manufacturing operations, recently announced a new round of layoffs and the closing of a number of locations, according to a report in the Rome (Ga.) Herald Tribune.
The most recent layoffs include about 65 employees at its window manufacturing facility.
Wheeler’s produces both vinyl and wood windows in a 144,000-square-foot plant in its home town of Rome. The company is letting nearly 200 other employees go from its corporate offices and other area facilities.
The Atlanta market is a “disaster area,” Mark Manis, Wheeler’s CEO, told the paper, leading the company to downsize from about 1,000 employees at its peak to less than 500. Wheeler’s had been expanding its operations, looking beyond the metro Atlanta region, even adding new operations in 2007.
Manis, who described the layoffs as “terrible,” told the Herald Tribune that the downturn in new construction in the region had cut the company’s sales by 60 percent. According to the newspaper, the company has closed two plants in Charlotte, N.C., and plants in Dalton, Calhoun, Newnan, Morrow, Madison and Cartersville, Ga., over the past year. Wheeler’s also sold a plant in Birmingham.
Thompson Creek Adds Multi-Family Unit
Thompson Creek Window Co. has created St. Claire Windows as a new company to focus on the multi-family window renovation business...
Thompson Creek Window Co., a 27-year old manufacturer and installer of windows based in Landover, Md., has created St. Claire Windows as a new company to focus on the multi-family window renovation business.
The company has served that market, supplying windows for low and mid rise apartments and condominiums, along with the single-family home market. With the change, Thompson Creek will continue to make windows for multi-family applications and then sell and install the windows under the St. Claire company name.
“We are very excited about St. Claire Windows,” says Rick Wuest, president of both St. Claire and Thompson Creek. “We realize the tremendous opportunity ahead of us and we are focused on providing the best product to our customers. St. Claire allows us the ability to do this in both our commercial and retail marketplace.”
With its focus on multi-family renovation projects, St. Claire will work with property management companies, in addition to general contractors and architects in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area.
“With St. Claire Windows we have a product that we feel is extremely competitive and unique to the marketplace, says Wuest. “We are very confident in our product because we control the process from start to finish. We are full service with sales, field measuring, manufacturing, field supervising, installation and product service.”
Thompson Creek recently purchased an 80,000-square foot building in Landover that will be home to its manufacturing plant, offices and showroom. The company employs more than 200 people.
BWI Consolidating Production in
Pennsylvania Facility
Bridgewater Wholesalers Inc. is shifting production from its Virginia facility to its main production operation in Mechanicsburg, Penn...
Bridgewater Wholesalers Inc. is shifting production from its Virginia facility to its main production operation in Mechanicsburg, Penn. The move is designed to enable the door and millwork distributor to take full advantage of its resources.
“Our Pennsylvania facility has always been a source of pride for BWI. It’s a mature facility that consistently meets the highest industry standards,” says Jack Cortese, president of the Bridgewater, N.J.-based company. Noting that the company recently completed a full operational analysis, he adds, “We’d be remiss not to take full advantage of the state-of-the-art technologies we have in
place there.”
Production is being discontinued at its Richmond, Va. facility, but that operation remains open, with no effect seen on customer service or delivery schedules in the Virginia and North Carolina service areas. “All shipping and loading will continue to be handled from the Richmond facility,” adds Cortese. “Only production will be reassigned to Pennsylvania.”
BWI’s main product lines are Masonite interior and exterior door units; Woodgrain door products Tru-Stile MDF and wood doors; and Lemieux fir, primed, and hardwood doors. It also carries Dixie Pacific columns and railings, Fypon urethane millwork and LJ Smith stair parts.
The company expanded last year, with the addition of facilities in Massachusetts and North Carolina. It now maintains six locations , with over 400 employees.
Patio Enclosures Adds Nebraska Dealer
Ohio-based Patio Enclosures, Inc. has signed a new dealership agreement with Malibu Sunrooms and Outdoor Living to serve the Southeast Nebraska and Western Iowa region...
Ohio-based Patio Enclosures, Inc. has signed a new dealership agreement with Malibu Sunrooms and Outdoor Living to serve the Southeast Nebraska and Western Iowa region. The new dealership is owned by partners Terri Peterson and Jack Rediger, who possess a combined 12 years experience in sunroom sales and more than 500 sunroom units between them.
The dealership is also planning to move into a new showroom in Gretna, Neb. The new building will house two full-size model sunrooms, offices and a warehouse, with another full-sized vinyl sunroom model to be constructed in front.
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The NAHB Green Scoring Tool
from the National Association of Home Builders
In support of its National Green Building Program, the National Association of Home Builders has launched www.nahbgreen.org. The Web site includes a "Green Scoring Tool" designed to be useful to skilled professionals as well as novices, providing information about the why and how of green building at every step... read more
The Great American Jobs Machine Is Conking Out
from BusinessWeek.com
Like lava flowing from a volcano, creative destruction—the economic notion that old companies and industries have to be wiped out before new ones can be born, first popularized by economist Joseph Schumpeter—is scary but beautiful. In the New Economy of the late 1990s, this phenomenon turned the U.S. into an amazing job-generating machine, because the rapid destruction of companies and jobs in flagging industries was outpaced by even more rapid creation of new jobs in growing sectors. From the bottom of the 1991 recession through the economy's peak in early 2001, the U.S. created 24 million jobs... read more
Analysts Still Bullish on Home Depot, Despite Cuts
from the Atlanta Journal Constitution
The future of the home improvement business looks bright despite Home Depot's decision this week to cut 500 jobs at its corporate headquarters in Atlanta, analysts say.
"We think that the prospects longer term are very attractive for home improvement," said Stephanie Hoff, senior retail analyst with Edward Jones. "Frank Blake has done a tremendous job of trying to right this ship ... getting Home Depot back to its roots. In our view that's going to pay dividends."... read more
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