While 2010 continued to bring many challenges for the window industry, many Windsor distributors had a successful year despite a less than stellar market.
Scott's Lumber, based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, has been a Windsor customer since 1995. They experienced solid growth in their Windsor business in 2010 and expect to grow their business again this year. Scott's Lumber leads by selling both Windsor vinyl and clad lines.
Mark Kozel, Scott’s General Manager, attributes several factors to their success in 2010. The first-time home buyer credit allowed good growth for one of their key Windsor builders. Scott’s also took advantage of the surge in window replacement projects that was driven by the 2010 tax credit.
To help capitalize on this, Mark added an additional salesperson to their showroom to help with the increased foot traffic from customers looking at windows. Scott Lumber also has a very knowledgeable and dedicated sales and service staff who work closely with their Windsor regional sales manager to maintain their builder relationships.
Pacific Mutual Door hails from Kansas City, Missouri, and started selling the Windsor brand in 1996. PMD focuses their efforts in selling the Windsor brand first. As a result, they have created recognition of the Windsor brand name in their market.
Jon Lambert, PMD’s president, said his success in 2010 was a result of a few factors: first, the dedication and hard work of his staff, including the inside sales team and his outside salespeople. Jon said the remodeling tax credit of 2010, coupled with their installed sales program, was a boost to sales as well. The installed sales program made it easy for the retail customer to receive turnkey service when buying windows as part of an installed package.
Jon also attributes their success to working closely with their Windsor regional sales manager and having a good service department to service what they sell.
Contractor’s Window Supply is located in Sandy, Utah, just south of Salt Lake City. They also have satellite locations in Provo and Park City and a newer location added late in 2010 in St. George, Utah. CWS has been selling Windsor since 1997, and 2010 was a good rebound year in regards to Windsor sales.
CWS manager Carl Haynie indicates that they promote Windsor as their value leader line. “Windsor has a great reputation among our architects and builders, and although it may not fit all projects, when Windsor does fit, it’s the best deal in town.”
CWS promoted Windsor through many architectural box lunch presentations throughout the year, working with their Windsor sales representative. They also promoted Windsor by giving away various promotional items to keep the Windsor name in front of their customers. CWS has worked hard to make the Windsor brand very recognizable in their markets. They successfully increased their business in 2010, along with their market share.
Front Range Window and Door is a newer distributor that started to sell Windsor in February 2010. They are based in Littleton, Colorado and brought on Windsor to fill a niche in their window offering. It ends up that Windsor has quickly become their lead clad window line. FRW&D posted great first year sales with Windsor and expects to continue to build on this success in 2011.
Shane Roth, owner of Front Range, states that “Windsor’s Pinnacle series offers a quality product that is competitively priced. The short lead times and good service allow us to service our customers quickly with complete deliveries.” He also maintains an in-house service department to assure their builders receive excellent service after the sale and delivery as well.
The successes stories above have a few common threads. First, all of these distributors have a narrow product focus that promotes the Windsor brand every day. Secondly, they have a committed and close relationship to the Windsor partnership and utilize their Windsor sales person to help build and maintain business relationships with their builders. Finally, they all have their own service personnel to help make sure their builder customers receive prompt service whenever needed.
We are not sure how 2011 will end up, but we are committed to working with you to implement your own ideas and strategies to help grow your Windsor sales and respective market share as well. Good selling.