ShareThisAfter losing his job as a golf course superintendent, Steve Timm got lucky.
It was December 2007 and the recession was beginning to take hold across the United States. Manufacturers in Minnesota had begun to slash jobs by the thousands.
But the 49-year-old Timm had landed a job at Marvin Windows and Doors. And despite his junior status at the 2 million-square-foot Warroad plant, he hung on to his job, even after sales began to drop by double-digit percentages over the past year.
The family-owned and -operated Marvin Windows kept everybody on the payroll.
"The easiest thing to cut costs rapidly is to lay off people, but that wasn't even considered," said Susan Marvin, president of Marvin Windows and Doors.
Now the business, which has weathered many recessions since it was founded as a lumber company in 1912, is well positioned to take advantage of a gradually improving housing market.
Sales of existing homes increased 7.2 percent in the United States in July as a potential housing recovery starts to take shape.
The company has avoided debt and continued to develop new products despite the economic downturn. A federal tax credit for energy-efficient windows may also spur more sales, as it did earlier this year at Marvin's Infinity replacement windows unit. And because Marvin didn't lay people off -- it put most employees on a 32-hour workweek instead -- the company can quickly ramp back up to full capacity.
"When the market turns, we are not going to be looking and then training," said Marvin, part of the third generation now running the company. "We are going to have a trained workforce ready to roll."
Still, she's realistic that the recession is far from over. She expects 2010 to be not much better than 2009. "Housing starts are more depressed now than they've been since the Great Depression," she said. She envisions another wave of home foreclosures before the housing market strengthens substantially.
Yet Marvin has no doubt that her company, founded by her grandfather George, will survive this recession. Marvin, 54, expressed confidence that the fourth generation of Marvins will be poised to navigate future downturns.
"We are making decisions this year and next year that will serve us well 10 years from now," she said.
A Marvin company brochure refers to Warroad, at the top of Minnesota near the Canadian border, as the "home of windows, walleyes and hockey."
To urban dwellers, Warroad could appear to be an isolated small town. It is unquestionably a company town.
Warroad's population is listed as 1,722 on its road sign. Marvin employs 2,592 people here.
But Marvin casts a big shadow in the larger business world, even though it is far removed from big cities and big airports. Window & Door Magazine estimated that privately held Marvin Windows and Doors will generate $500 million to $1 billion in revenue this year.
John Marvin, Susan's brother and CEO of the Marvin Companies parent corporation, last week was named chairman of the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Susan Marvin formerly chaired the board of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce.
The Marvins have made major contributions to the library and other public buildings in Warroad, and John and Susan's parents, Bill and Margaret, established a $15 million endowment to fund college scholarships for Warroad High School graduates.
David Olson, president of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, said Marvin's large commitment to the community where it does business distinguishes it from other companies.
"Their focus has been on the success of Warroad as much as it has been on the success of Marvin Windows," he said.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
Must credit Minneapolis Star Tribune
