Marvin’s “Window Shopping” app was included in the issue’s round-up of the best mobile apps for builders and contractors. This app is a tool to help homeowners plan basic designs for windows and doors, inside and outside the house. After taking a photo of an interior or exterior space that could use an upgrade, the app user can choose from nearly 50 resizable photos of Marvin windows and doors, arrange them over the photo, and save or send the photo to share with friends, family or a local Marvin dealer.

Additionally, our sister brand Integrity Windows and Doors had two items featured in this issue of the magazine: Integrity Wood-Ultrex Special Size windows were listed near the top of the readers’ choice Favorite 50 products list, and its “Built to Perform” app was also included in the same editors’ choice round-up as our Window Shopping app.

Check your mailbox for the April issue, or read the digital edition online.

Brett Boyum

Our newly promoted vice president of marketing, Brett Boyum, was featured in the Minneapolis Star Tribune as a “Mover & Shaker.” Brett has been with the Marvin family of companies for nearly 15 years, previously serving a term as director of marketing for both Marvin Windows and Doors, and Integrity Windows and Doors.

We’re proud that people of Brett’s caliber choose to build their careers with us, and that’s why we particularly liked one of the comments he made to the Star Tribune reporter:

“Staying at Marvin has been easy,” Brett said. “There’s a value system that aligns really strongly with my personal values, that’s about taking care of people, taking care of the customers and taking care of your community. We’re selling a product that’s part of a customer’s life, it’s part of their family, it’s their home.”

Well said. We look forward to great things under Brett’s leadership.

Though there are signs of a revival in housing, Marvin still maintains a cautious outlook. In an interview withWSJ reporter Robbie Whelan, Susan Marvin pointed out that the housing business still has a long way to get back to pre-recession levels.

Still, despite the boost in renovation work, and some signs of uptick from the dealer and distributor communities, Marvin is predicting little to no growth in revenues for 2012. Best case scenario, Ms. Marvin says, the company’s orders will rise 5%, but even that is unlikely.

“We’re not talking about a housing recovery,” she says. “We’re talking about a small pickup.”

Read the full article at wsj.com.

“In the marketplace today, consumers have created a big demand for energy-efficient products,” said Christine Marvin, head of product planning for Marvin Windows. “Fortunately, we were there to meet that trend. Now it’s an issue of dealing with stronger and stricter criteria that are in place.”

In the 1970s, Marvin Windows was considered a pioneer in the development of high-performance low-thermal emissivity (or low-E) windows, whose surface radiates or emits lower levels of heat energy, helping keep warm air inside during cold weather and out during summer.

According to Marvin, the ongoing progress of sustainability in the window market is the result of consumer demand, federal regulatory decrees such as Energy Star and the company’s internal ingenuity. [...]

“It’s a matter of push and pull,” Marvin said. “Consumers are educated: They want performance in their windows, and they want to save money.”

Read the full piece from Finance & Commerce.

In the interviews, Devereaux and Davidson discuss weighty topics such as what helped pull the housing industry out of previous recessions and finding success despite the current recession. Unfortunately, we can’t embed the videos here, but you can watch the interviews will Bill Devereaux and Bill Davidson on BuilderOnline.com.

The Star Tribune writes, “Industry groups have forecast only modest recovery in window and door sales this year. Marvin has kept its financial house in order, which has helped it survive the downturn and positioned it to benefit when the housing market revives.”

If 2012 is anything like 2011 — a year that saw the company covered by an in-depth feature story from the New York Times and discussed in a major speech from President Obama — it’s sure to be another great year for Marvin Windows and Doors.

Since President Obama praised our commitment to community and employees in his speech last week, we’ve been getting a lot of nice pats on the back from friends, dealers and others who know our company. We appreciate the sentiments, although we’d be doing the same thing even if nobody had noticed.

But we’ll admit that being the subject of such a touching piece as Tom’s brings a little lump to our throats and a smile to our faces.

Things haven’t been easy in our industry these last few years, but by pulling together, we’ve kept going without losing the skills and dedication of the valued workers who are the lifeblood of our business — and our communities.

We know things will turn around, and when they do, our workers will share in the good times — just as they’ve shared the challenges of the tough times.

President Obama’s remarks we’re inspired by a feature story written by the New York Times‘ Andrew Martin who visited Warroad and saw firsthand our commitment to the community and workforce.

We’re honored that the president took notice of our longstanding efforts to strengthen our communities as we keep our work force intact. As a family-owned and operated company, our philosophy is simple: Do the right thing. If we stay focused on doing the right thing for our customers, our employees and our communities, then our business will be just fine. It’s been a tough few years, but by pulling together, we’ve survived — and we believe we’re poised to thrive.

President Obama’s remarks:

“In the end, rebuilding this economy based on fair play, a fair shot and a fair share will require all of us to see that we have a stake in each others’ success. … American business leaders [must] understand that their obligations don’t just end with their shareholders. …

“I think about a company based in Warroad, Minnesota, called Marvin Windows and Doors. During the recession, Marvin’s competitors closed dozens of plants and let go hundreds of workers. But Marvin did not lay off a single one of their four thousand or so employees. In fact, they’ve only laid off workers once in over a hundred years. Mr. Marvin’s grandfather even kept his eight employees during the Depression.

When times get tough, the workers agree to give up some perks and pay, and so do the owners. As one owner said, ‘You can’t grow if you’re cutting your lifeblood – and that’s the skills and experience your workforce delivers.’ For the CEO, it’s about the community: ‘These are people we went to school with,’ he said. ‘We go to church with them. We see them in the same restaurant. Indeed, a lot of us have married local girls and boys. We could be anywhere. But we are in Warroad.’

“That’s how America was built. That’s why we’re the greatest nation on Earth. That’s what our greatest companies understand. Our success has never just been about survival of the fittest. It’s been about building a nation where we’re all better off. We pull together, we pitch in, and we do our part, believing that hard work will pay off; that responsibility will be rewarded; and that our children will inherit a nation where those values live on.”

Learn more about Marvin’s heritage of supporting its community and workforce.

We recently hosted a half-dozen top editors from the Hanley Wood building publications on a visit to our main factory in Warroad, Minn. It was a great trip and the participants seemed to really be interested in seeing how our windows and doors are made.

Now one of our visitors, Lauren Hunter, has posted a wonderful slideshow of her visit on the Remodeling magazine website. Wow — Lauren was really paying attention! The photo captions for her slideshow are packed with interesting information she gleaned during her day-and-a-half tour.

Thanks, Lauren — we hope you understand our products and our company much better than you did before you visited us. This is why we bring 4,000 visitors to Warroad every year: dealers, builders, remodelers, architects and even media members. There’s nothing like seeing for yourself the care and quality we put into everything we build.