Jeld-Wen

Jeld -Wen is a company with 100 divisions and 20,000 employees in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia. The businesses include windows, interior and exterior doors, and related building products.

History

In 1960 Richard Wendt bought with four business partners a sawmill in the town of Klamath Falls in southern Oregon. With 15 employees, the company began production of the door. After the death of Wendt in 2010, the privately held company sold for 864 million dollars, with 58 percent of its shares in the Canadian investment firm Onex.

In 1993, Jeld -Wen entered the European market. Today Jeld-Wen Europe operates 20 production plants in 12 countries and employs 6,000 people. The European headquarters is in Danish Løgstør.

Klamath Falls, Oregon, is the world headquarters. Since 2012 in Charlotte, North Carolina, the new North American headquarters of the company.

Geographical Distribution

In America, Jeld- Wen has been active in the United States, Canada and Chile. In Indonesia and Malaysia sit the Asian subsidiaries of the company. The brands Stegbar, Regency, William Russell, Corinthian Doors and Airlite are in Australia behind Jeld -Wen. Europe is divided into four groups - North and Central Europe, France, United Kingdom. Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Norway and Sweden are the subsidiaries in Northern Europe. Germany, Austria, Poland, Switzerland and Hungary are among the Jeld- Wen locations in Central Europe.

Origin of the name

In the 1930s, Lester Wendt bought a small farm outside of Dubuque, Iowa, as a retreat for the family. To find a name for the farm, a family competition was held. This Dick's cousin Jeanette Coughlin came in the name of Jeld -Wen, an acronym for the name of Dick and his immediate family (sister, mother and father) and a shortened version of Wendt.