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Salesman Bishop Peery estimates the company’s Springfield arm serves 160 customers a year.
Salesman Bishop Peery estimates the company’s Springfield arm serves 160 customers a year.

Business Spotlight: Bring the Pane

Posted online

When one door closes, another opens.

On May 1, when business shuttered for 32-year-old Pella Windows and Doors Inc. at 3131 S. Clifton Ave., Mike Farquhar assumed its territory and opened Pella Products of Arkansas and Missouri two miles east at 448 W. Battlefield Road. The company sells window and door products for Iowa-based Pella Corp.

Parent company Farquhar Enterprises LLC also operates a distribution warehouse and retail store in Little Rock, Ark., and another Arkansas store transplanted to Bentonville from Springdale.

Farquhar is a 20-year veteran of Pella Corp., most recently serving as president of Monett-based Pella subsidiary EFCO Corp. Prior to inking a distribution deal for southwest Missouri and Arkansas, he worked at Pella’s corporate headquarters in a broad range of finance, marketing and engineering positions.

Armed with institutional knowledge of the 90-year-old family-owned Pella brand, Farquhar says his purchase of former distributor Kevin Horton’s territory and assets afforded him the opportunity to own a business he knows inside and out. That’s no small feat considering Pella Corp. advertises it holds over 100 product and design patents.

“We’re running ahead of our business plan and we’re off to a really good start,” says Farquhar, declining to disclose early sales figures.

He expects the company to exceed $5 million in first-year revenue, with the Springfield store budgeted at roughly $1 million. Pella’s corporate sales were estimated to exceed $1 billion last year, according to the National Glass Association industry publication Window & Door.

Replacement ready
While EFCO specialized in commercial windows, Farquhar says that’s only about 10 percent of Pella Products’ current customer base. The lion’s share is an even split between residential replacements and trade sales to general contractors for build-to-order products.

Keystone Building and Design LLC owner Chad Holgerson says his Nixa company uses Pella Products frequently for upgrade projects, which require a high degree of customization.

“We’re design and rebuild remodelers, so we look at premium quality products for people who are investing in their home,” Holgerson says. “These aren’t just the stock models sitting on a shelf.”

Window Replacement Sales Specialist Bishop Peery estimates the company’s Springfield arm serves 160 customers a year, and pegs the typical replacement order between $5,000 and $8,000.

Throughout Farquhar’s territory, he says replacement jobs number 500, spurred in the last year by homeowner willingness to phase-in updates.

“That went dark for a long time, but people are investing in their houses again,” Farquhar says. “Most of our replacement business is wood windows – which is unique – and it tells you a little bit about the clientele.”

Digital age
With a well-established name among homeowners, Farquhar sees trade sales as a ripe area for growth in the Springfield market. Pella Products handles about 200 new construction projects for other types of residential buildings across the territory, including a dormitory underway at the University of Arkansas in Conway.

“A lot of that side of the business, we notice that they call us when they’re ready for a quote. But they’re pretty well aware of us,” says Peery, a 10-year Pella employee in Springfield.

In the developing Overland Heights subdivision in southwest Springfield, Greg Off Construction Co. Inc. is using Pella for a new residence on West Darby Street. Off says the homeowners requested Pella after using the company’s product in their last four residences.

“They have a fast turnaround on special order windows, which is efficient,” he says, nothing his company has used Pella on various projects since 1973. “This last order I think was ready to ship in three or four weeks.”

The next step is innovating products for the digital age. Farquhar says Springfield’s office already receives inquiries for Pella Corp.’s Insynctive line. The technology allows users to remotely control window shades or program them into home automation systems.

“Our history is in shades and blinds with the innovations we’ve done,” Farquhar says of Pella, which started in the 1920s with the invention of the rolling window screen. “We’re just rolling them out, but they’re in production and we’ll sell them now. We had three sales calls on them this week.”

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