Tough housing industry squeezes Marvin profits

Photo courtesy Marvin Windows

The bad news for the 3,000 employees at Warroad-based Marvin Windows is they won't get a profit sharing bonus in time for the holidays. The good news is they still have jobs.

For the second year in a row Marvin won't have profit sharing with it's employees.

Spokesman John Kirchner says the company is still feeling the effects of the recession and the housing market bust.

In 2009 Marvin cut workers back to 32 hours a week instead of laying off some workers.

Kirchner says for about the past six months most workers have been back to 40 hour weeks. He attributes the increase in work partially to a normal seasonal uptick in construction orders, and to the federal tax credit for energy efficient doors and windows.

That credit could expire at the end of the year so a lot of people have been ordering doors and windows to beat the deadline.

Kirchner says he expects the workers to go back to 32-hour work weeks sometime early next year. He says Marvin is the only major door and window manufacturer that hasn't laid off employees or closed a plant during the current recession.

He says keeping those skilled employees working helps position the company for a time when the construction industry takes off again.

When might that be? Kirchner says Marvin is cautiously optimistic about 2011 but still expects a "very challenging" year ahead.

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