Crystal Executive Joins V.P. Biden’s Business Roundtable

 

Crystal Window & Door Systems was invited earlier this month to participate in a roundtable discussion of the impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) on business.  The event, hosted by U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden on June 2 at Pace University in Manhattan, brought together business leaders from the New York area and other northeastern states to highlight successes resulting from federal stimulus initiatives.  The Partnership for New York City, which has worked with Crystal on its expansion investments, made Biden’s office aware of the manufacturer and its success.

Crystal Executive Vice President Steve Chen was pleased to share Crystal’s experiences with the audience.  “Crystal was feeling the effects of the downturn in the construction and remodeling industry, as was the rest of the window manufacturing sector,” Chen said.  “Sales were at a standstill and it was impossible to maintain our current level of production.  For the first time in our 19-year history, it looked like we would have to make some serious workforce reductions at the beginning of this year.”

Included in the federal stimulus act that passed in February are tax credits for homeowners purchasing and installing highly energy-efficient windows.  Having invested significantly for the past several months in upgrading its products to meet more stringent Energy Star® performance criteria, Crystal was in an excellent position to take advantage of the tax credit initiative.  “Once tax credits became available for high performance windows, Crystal promoted the product aggressively to its customers and received a tremendous amount of interest,” Chen said.  “Our sales leads started coming in almost overnight.  It was exactly the stimulus that homeowners needed to make the investment in their homes with very energy efficient windows, and it was exactly the stimulus a business like ours needed.”

Crystal has 16 windows that qualify for stimulus tax credits, a fact that helped drive up the company’s sales this fiscal year slightly over last year’s sales.  Crystal did not have to implement severe workforce reductions and is now looking to fill some engineering positions, instead of eliminating them.

Crystal Window & Door Systems is one of the top 50 manufacturers in North America of replacement and new construction vinyl and aluminum window and door products and high-end fenestration systems. Crystal offers a full product line, rapid order-to-delivery times, quality workmanship, innovative product features and outstanding value. Crystal operates branches, subsidiaries and affiliates in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Missouri, Connecticut, New Jersey, Illinois, and Massachusetts. Crystal is dedicated to practicing “green” environmental initiatives in all aspects of corporate activities. For more information about Crystal and its products, call 718-961-7300 or visit www.crystalwindows.com.