For the last six years in a row, the owners of
Window World (www.windowworld.com) dealerships around the country
have gathered for a three-day annual meeting.
On the surface, the gatherings are similar to annual
meetings held by other franchise organizations. There
are educational sessions during the day. In the evening,
there is networking and entertainment. But Window
World gatherings typically feel different than the
obligatory annual business meeting.

For starters, many of the dealers have seen their lives
change dramatically for the better since buying a
Window World dealership. As a group, they have
experienced 40 percent compounded annual growth
over the past four years. Many have become wealthy.
As a result, these annual gatherings (the most recent
meeting was held in August in Cape Canaveral, Fla.)
have taken on a true celebratory feel — they are always
held at a resort with all expenses paid; spouses are
encouraged to attend (and most do whether they are
involved in the business or not); and perhaps most
telling of all, the dealers themselves have taken to calling
the event a “family reunion,” says Todd Whitworth,
president of Window World Inc. and son of company
founder Leon Whitworth.

“I think this feeling among our dealers is a testament
to the value-driven way we approach the business,” says
Todd. “We sell a great product at a price people can
afford and our dealers have seen the response. It works.”
Leon Whitworth, the founder of Window World
Inc., has deep roots in the home improvement industry.
Beginning in the early ’70s Leon sold aluminum siding
in a bygone era of the siding business. From there
he went on to establish a successful building supply
distribution firm and a window manufacturing firm.
According to Todd, all of Leon’s business experience
in home improvement, (the good and the bad aspects
of the industry) laid the groundwork for establishing a
new kind of replacement window firm in 1995. And
the beginnings of the company were very humble.
“My dad started the company out of what most people
would call a roadside shack near Wilmington, N.C.,”
recalls Todd. “When I first saw it, my response was:
‘You are selling how many windows out of that?’ I
could not believe it. And Leon told me confidently that
I would be working for him in a year. I thought: no
way. I have a good job and I don’t intend to work for
my dad. He was wrong. I was working for him 10
months later.”

Independent of his father’s business experience, Todd
also has deep roots in home improvement. Before joining
his father in helping to launch Window World in
1997, Todd was a national sales trainer for a window
company that eventually became Atrium Windows.
“As soon as I got down to Wilmington, Leon went
out and began establishing our dealer network,” says
Todd. “Our first dealer was in Raleigh and we got the
ball rolling from there.”

Since that time, the company’s growth has been
nothing short of phenomenal. The company now has
195 dealers throughout the country, and in 2006 those
dealers sold and installed 89,874 jobs, which translated
to $270,691,333 in sales, or 850,000 windows. Last
month, the company installed 100,000 windows and
this year, Todd expects that the firm exceed 1 million
windows sold and installed.


When Leon Whitworth set out to establish Window
World, in many ways he was also hoping to establish a
new model for doing business in the home improvement
industry, says Todd. He wanted to offer an alternative
to “the dinosaurs” and the old ways of doing things that
have dominated home improvement since the 1970s.
“My father started out as a tin man in the early 1970s
selling aluminum siding, the same way that everybody
else sold aluminum siding at the time. It was a really,
really high-pressure close,” explains Todd. “And as he
was evaluating what he needed to do to be successful in
home improvement and windows, he did it completely
backwards from what any MBA or business expert
would tell you how to do it. Normally you take your
product, your labor, your overhead, and put your profit
on it to get your price. My dad started with the price.
So he took $189 as a selling price and then backed-in
those numbers.

“If I sell it for $189, my labor has to be X, my overhead
has to be X etc., to be able to sell it for $189. The
real tricky part to that equation was that he could not
do it with a cheap window. He recognized that you
cannot have cheap price and a cheap product at the
same time. It has got to be a great value, which means
a low price and a premium product. And since that
time, we have built our business on the slogan: simply
the best for less.”

“So it starts with great value for the consumer. Then
the salesperson needs to make a good income. The
installers need to make a good income. The licensees
have to be very profitable. And if all that happens,” says
Todd, “then we at corporate are profitable.”

Most of the time when a Window World salesperson
meets with a customer for the first time, they want to
know where the catch is on the $189 window offer, but
there really is no catch. The salesperson will show the
customer a good window manufactured by Associated
Materials Inc., the same product which recently won a
Consumers Digest best product award. They will tell
the customer that they can have that window installed
for $189. But if they want grills (muntin bars), it will
be an extra $32. If they want Low-E glass, that will be
an additional $32. These are small and transparent
add-ons at a reasonable cost.

Once trust has been established, Window World typically
sells more windows and the job size gets bigger.
Says Todd, people begin to look for ways to replace all
of the windows in their house.

“When my dad told me that he was planning to sell
windows for $189, I thought, I am out training guys
how to sell windows for $600 to $700 a piece. That
was my job, to train people all over the country how to
do this. There is no way $189 is going to work. There
is no way you can make money.” Todd recalls thinking
at the time. But it soon dawned on him that Leon was
on to something big. Leon, says Todd, had developed
and tested a new “cake mix” of operational systems at
his Wilmington, NC “roadside shack” that helped keep
the business profitable and on a growth track. The
“cake mix” includes everything from marketing and
selling to installation. Most importantly, the Window
World systems and processes were very scalable to any
number of locations.

Bob Schindler of Associated Materials, who works
very closely with Window World, summed up the systems
and processes this way: “It is simple. And it is great.”

The vast majority of Window World dealers are
located in the South, the Midwest and the Northeast,
but not for long. The company has embarked on an
aggressive growth path for locations on the West Coast.
Toward that end, the company has hired a full-time
sales training consultant based in Santa Barbara, Calif.,
close to where the new dealership growth will be. The
company’s window supplier is also planning an
expansion of its manufacturing capacity in California.
The company is expecting that it will open most of its
new dealerships in California, Oregon and Washington.
Yes, the country is experiencing a housing slowdown.
And it has even begun to impact the remodeling market,
but Window World is expecting to grow in 2008. And
given its 10-year track record, very few people doubt
that they will achieve their goals.


FAST FACTS ABOUT WINDOW WORLD INC:
• Chief executive: Todd Whitworth
• Headquarters: North Wilkesboro, N.C.
• Web site: www.windowworldinc.com
• Number of dealers: 195
• 2006 revenues: $270,691,333
• 2006 jobs: 89,874
• Total number of windows installed in 2006:
approximately 850,000 (No. 1 in the U.S.)
• Window manufacturing partner:
Associated Materials Inc., Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
• Percent of revenue spent on marketing: 9%
• Top lead sources in 2006: Newspapers, 48%;
Referrals, 21%; Repeat, 13%, Interent, 5%
• Percent of jobs where Window World was
only bidder: 12%
• Percent of jobs with three or more bids: 61%
• Top challenge for 2008: Continue double-digit
growth in existing markets
• Top opportunity for 2008: Expanding the number
of dealers on the West Coast

http://www.windowworld.com

Press Contact Information

Window World, Inc.
bingle@windowworldinc.com
336-667-2100
118 Shaver Street N. Wilkesboro 28659

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