Clear Vision for Success – Winnipeg Free Press

STEINBACH — When Vern Rempel started working at Loewen Windows in 1990, he thought he would stay with the company for five years. But apart from a six-week stint trying his hand at trucking, he has stayed with the company ever since.

“I love the people I work with,” says the 57-year-old father and grandfather, whose daughter Chelsea makes cabinets with him in the Manitoba firm’s exhibition department.

“I enjoy working with my supervisors and my team leaders; it’s a great place to work. People hear me say that and say, “You can’t really be serious.” I am serious. It’s a great place to work.”

Todd LeRoy agrees.

LeRoy was fresh out of high school when he got a job loading trucks at Loewen Windows in 1982. He never imagined it would be a career that would see him rise through various factory jobs to his current role as vice president of marketing.

“My son worked here before college, my daughter worked here before college – that’s part of the appeal of Loewen: it’s a family business. There are a lot of families working here,” LeRoy said. “I felt very comfortable with my children working here and I think that says something about the quality of the company.”

Rempel and LeRoy are two of nearly 40 current employees who have worked at Loewen Windows for 25 years or more.

A photo of everyone who has reached the quarter-century milestone is on display in the manufacturer’s office, located in Steinbach. In a nearby room hang another 70 photos depicting retired employees who worked at the company for 25 years or more.

“We have a lot of long-term employees here,” said co-owner and senior vice president Clyde Loewen. “It’s really great.”

Loewen’s grandfather started what would become Loewen Windows in 1905. At the time, it was a small sawmill and sawmill where entrepreneurship, hard work and community spirit were valued.

Today, Loewen Windows is a leading manufacturer of windows and doors primarily intended for high-quality single-family homes.

Nearly 700 people work for the company. Of that number, 540 are involved in production, which takes place entirely in a 600,000-square-foot factory on Highway 52.

The company is committed to making made-to-order products and creating sustainable designs using authentic, high-quality materials.

“We get to do cool projects all the time,” says Loewen. “We’re allowed to sign non-disclosure agreements because we’re working on so-and-so’s house…”

“…And everyone would recognize who so-and-so is because they’re really good at moving a football across a field or when they’re on a movie screen,” interjects Neil Fast, president and CEO.

“The windows and doors of those houses come from this small Mennonite town in southeastern Manitoba,” Loewen continues. “Your humility is often put in check because it involves houses that are difficult to deal with (in terms of size), but it works.”

Creating quality products and providing good jobs makes for a winning combination, said Fast, who joined the company in 2023.

“There’s something great about having a company with a culture and a product like us,” says Fast. “There is a culture of collaboration and respect that is rare these days.”

Things may look rosy now, but fifteen years ago it was a different story.

The 2008-2009 financial crisis had serious consequences for Loewen Windows, which does a lot of business in the US. In a short time, the company had lost approximately 90 percent of its turnover.

As sales plummeted, the Canadian dollar approached parity with the U.S. dollar; the money Loewen Windows earned was worth 30 percent less than before.

Due to the decline in turnover, the workforce had to be reduced from 1,700 to 500 people.

“It was definitely a difficult time,” says Clyde Loewen. “You would never know when and where the bottom would be.”

It became clear that selling was the best move to save the company. In 2010, the Loewen family sold the brand to VKR Holding A/S, a Denmark-based investment company.

“I would have to say they were excellent owners for this company,” Loewen says. “It was about as good as it could be.”

In 2013, Clyde Loewen, his older brother Charles and several private investors bought the company back from VKR.

The following years remained challenging for the construction industry.

Fast applauds what the ownership group has been able to accomplish.

Fast worked for almost 20 years at Brock White, a building materials supplier. He became acquainted with the American housing market when he worked for the company in Minneapolis for seven years.

“(The years) 2010 through… 2016 continued to be dramatically challenging days for anyone in the building materials industry with a U.S. presence,” Fast said.

“The fact that Loewen was able to survive that recession, the correction, a sale to a private equity firm, buy it back and then rebuild it … the fact that they worked so hard and got through it, that’s really a incredibly important chapter in Loewen history.”

While the COVID-19 pandemic brought its own challenges, today Fast is excited about where Loewen Windows is and what lies ahead.

“Many companies have disappeared or changed dramatically over the past five years, and Loewen has held strong throughout that process,” he says.

The company does its engineering, product development, marketing and customer service from its headquarters in Steinbach.

It has sales offices in Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver and Victoria, and an extensive dealer network in the US

Ownership continues to invest heavily in the company as it prepares to launch new products.

Co-working robots, or cobots, are being introduced to work alongside staff, not to replace humans, but to do precise, repetitive work. The company is also regularly recognized for its commitment to employee safety.

Steinbach is no longer a small, predominantly Mennonite town. As the city has become more diverse, so has Loewen Windows’ workforce.

But the values ​​that were key to its founding in 1905 – entrepreneurship, hard work and community spirit – are still fundamental today.

“There is a culture of collaboration and respect that is rare these days,” says Fast. “There is seriousness.”

“If the group has to make a decision here, they do it in a very thoughtful, respectful way and then we implement it,” he added. “That sounds kind of (obvious) – isn’t that how every business works? And it really isn’t.”

The company will celebrate its 120th anniversary next year, an achievement no one can take credit for.

“Everyone knows they have to play their role and that this is a team,” said Clyde Loewen. “We work together.”

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