Golden Windows
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By Genevieve Diesing   
Wednesday, 07 May 2008
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Although some companies say that their good treatment of employees widens their profit margins, the Canadian window manufacturer Golden Windows Ltd. can prove it.

According to a 2005 inter-firm comparison conducted by the Canadian Window and Door Manufacturing Association (CWDMA) and previous comparisons by the independent research company Raymond Major and Associates, Golden Windows had one of the best labor and material cost-per-unit in the medium-sized company's niche of the window manufacturing industry. "The bottom line is, our labor cost dropped from 16.7 percent to 14.1 percent of the selling price and our material costs went from 46 to less than 41 percent," owner Ken Kreutner says.

"Our competition buys extrusion and lumber for the same price we do, but our material costs are considerably lower than the industry median because of our employees' input," Kreutner explains. "It really contributes to the bottom line." Kreutner says floor workers regularly come up with ideas on how the company could save on material and labor as they assemble products. "Often the ideas are very small and seemingly insignificant, but they do add up," Kreutner says.

Equal Treatment
The company has a philosophy for maintaining a happy work force. "We highly respect all of our employees, from the janitor to the senior management," Kreutner says. " Every employee is worth [the same] to the company."

That equal treatment also translates into financial considerations. "Honestly, we have a very lucrative profit-sharing plan where everyone's treated equally in respect of position," Kreutner says. "[Our plan] rewards each [employee] evenly. We also pay our employees considerably higher than our competition because we can and we recognize that they are our gem."

ISO 9001 certified-Golden Windows operates out of a 126,000-square-foot plant in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. It sells mainly to Canada but also does business in Japan, Great Britain, the United States and the Cayman Islands. Golden Windows sells traditional vinyl windows, but specializes in wood and aluminum-clad windows and al associated products, which require special machining equipment to produce. Golden Windows stands out as one of the few manufacturers that make both types of windows, Kreutner points out.

"It's a very demanding market," he says. "If someone's going to put this product into their home it better be right. We've been around here for 45 years - we're not going to be gone tomorrow."

Family Values
Golden Windows was started by a man named Ray Caravaggio in 1961, who was joined by Kreutner's father, George Kreutner. "My dad joined [Caravaggio] as a financial partner but ended up being the owner, with Mr. Caravaggio as president," Kreutner says. "Both strongly believed in an ethical way of doing business." Kreutner and his son Paul, who will take over the company in about two years when Kreutner plans to retire - share the same strong spiritual moral and ethical values.

Kreutner says the work ethic instilled in him by his father has seeped into his own management philosophy, which is redirected to the company, customers and community. Kreutner donates funds to charities such as Habitat for Humanity and a variety of other charitable organizations. "Money is always left in the company to ensure that we have the best foundation and ability to purchase the latest equipment and we can sell our products at the best price," Kreutner says.

Those products include a casement and awning line reintroduced in October 2006. Now in their fourth version, the windows have been equipped with extra layers of weather-stripping for better insulation. The two levers on the windows have been replaced by one lever that connects a series of rods and is more user-friendly.
Several other product lines are in the redevelopment and redesign process at the moment, such as the company's sliding glass doors and entry systems.

Kreutner says the company reinvents its product lines every eight to 10 years to stay current and maintain quality. "We stand behind our warranties," Kreutner says. "Anybody can scroll out a warranty - printing is cheap as dog dirt - but standing behind it is another factor. We're not perfect but when our customers do have a problem, it's our problem."
 
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