National Door & Trim expanding facility

Van Wert independent staff

A local company is expanding its facility and adding 30 additional jobs.

According to a story first printed in the Lake Erie West Manufacturing & Construction News, National Door & Trim will be expanding its Grill Road facility in Vision Industrial Park, adding an approximately 2,600-square-foot showroom addition and about 1,3000 square feet of new office space to its 75,000-square-foot facility.

Tom Turnwald, president of National Door & Trim, noted that the company has had a need to showcase its existing and new products, adding that this expansion will also result in the company’s employing 30 more people to add to the 43 employees who currently work for the company.

Although the company struggled, like most others tied to the housing market, when housing starts were nearly nonexistent in 2009, Turnwald said the company worked to expand its product line. “We’ve been growing for the past three years and these new products require retail space to show them,” he said.

Local contractor Alexander & Bebout will be the general contractor on the project and will feature several “green” components, including energy-saving lighting.

Turnwald noted that many of National Door & Trim’s products are also green, noting that all of the finishes used on the company’s various products are water-based, while all of the wood used to manufacture the products come from sustainable forests.

“About 90 percent of our customers are resident contractors and residential builders,” Turnwald said, while the other 10 percent are individual customers.

National Door & Trim’s customer base is primarily in a 130-mile radius of Van Wert, from Toledo to Elkhart, Ind., and into the Columbus and Dayton metropolitan areas.

“This expansion is an indication that progress is being made in our Vision Industrial Park, and that companies have begun to invest in capital projects to meet the needs of their customers,” said Van Wert County Economic Development Director/Educator Cindy Leis, who added that National Door & Trim’s expansion is needed to promote new products and expand the company’s customer base, which currently focuses on “higher-end” homes worth between $350,000 to $2 million.

To assist the project, Van Wert City Council earlier approved an Enterprise Zone agreement with the company that provides 100 percent property tax abatement for a five-year period.