Over the last few years, our industry has lost too many valuable employees. This is due to two major factors. One is the Great Resignation. This is an ongoing trend in which employees started voluntarily resigning from their jobs en masse, beginning in early 2021, due to the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The second […]

It probably goes without saying that door and window manufacturers learned a lot in the past few years, as we dealt with the pandemic and its aftereffects. Supply chain issues, hot demand, sky-high lead times … you probably don’t need me to remind you. We worked through it together. And amidst these challenges, there was […]

After suppliers of raw materials and additives invoked the pertinent force majeure clauses in their contracts with Deceuninck North America, company officials delivered the same message to its door and window customers last week, notifying them of additional product shortages and possible price increases.  A “force majeure” clause (French for “superior force”) is a contract […]

It is forecasting time, and I am working on sales projections for 2022. So, I am visiting with customers and asking them what projections for next year may look like. Usually, I get fairly solid answers like, “this year we grew 10%, and we feel next year it may slow down a bit, but we […]

The costs for building materials remains a red-hot issue for suppliers and construction firms, as representative associations plea with government officials to investigate and take action. In late March, a cohort of 36 construction-related organizations, including the National Lumber and Building Material Dealers Association (NLBMDA), the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and the Associated […]

Although the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) announced the results of a final antidumping duty and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) investigation into wood mouldings and millwork products imported from China in early January, that doesn’t mean suppliers have digested all this info and what it means for their businesses and the market as a whole. With […]

With the industry currently experiencing a sharp uptick, one of the challenges that has recently presented itself is raw material shortages. With the onset of the pandemic, some raw material and component suppliers were too quick to cut staff only to realize 60 days later that the fenestration industry is somehow benefitting from the stay […]