Las Vegas — Trendy window profiles in black or bronze and grand patio doors that protect against hurricanes were in the product spotlight for Ply Gem Building Products at the International Builders' Show.
The Cary, N.C.-based company continues to add to its vinyl window and door offering, most recently through the acquisition of the Silver Line and American Craftsman brands from Andersen Corp.
Bayport, Minn.-based Andersen divested its hollow-core vinyl window and patio door business to Ply Gem for $190 million in October 2018. The deal included four plants that manufacture the two brands.
"Andersen had some product lines and niches that fit perfectly with where we were going. It was a great blend," Mark Montgomery, Ply Gem's vice president of marketing, said at IBS.
The three-day event held Feb. 19-21 in Las Vegas drew its biggest crowd in 10 years with about 100,000 people attending to see the latest home building innovations as well as kitchen and bath products.
Thirty-nine percent of builders and remodelers say extra-large windows and patio doors are the top exterior building product that will positively impact their business in 2019, according to a survey conducted in December 2018 by Nimble Thinkers LLC in collaboration with Ply Gem.
The No. 2 pipe, profile and tubing producer in North America, based on annual sales of $1.99 billion, is ready to supply them.
Ply Gem showed builders and remodelers its EuroSeries sliding patio door, which comes in two-, three-, and four-panel configurations and tops out at 21-feet wide and 9 ½-feet tall for panoramic views. The Euro series is suitable for high velocity hurricane zones like coastal regions of the Eastern U.S.
Montgomery said the door's construction depth and engineered design allow it to protect houses and their occupants from extreme weather. The vinyl frame also can be customized with white or woodgrain interior colors and white, gray or bronze exterior colors.
Ply Gem also is out with vinyl windows in dark exterior colors, including black and bronze, for builders, remodelers and architects as part of its West Pro Series 700 – casement windows for western states – and its 1500 window series of single-hung platforms for eastern states.
"Most folks are looking for two-toned windows with white on the inside and a dark color on the outside because they want to keep the interior neutral and still have that darker exterior," Montgomery said.
