Randy Emerson, CEO and president of Cascade Windows, says the employees at Paramount Windows and Cascade are so positive about the acquisition that there were “high fives and fist bumps” during the introductory meetings.
“The employees are so excited to be part of this thing,” says Emerson. “They are thrilled to have leadership with clear goals and objectives. The meetings were phenomenal–it’s really euphoric.”
He also stresses that this acquisition “is not a consolidation.”
“This is a well-performing company … The same management will remain in place with the same products and the same salespeople,” he says.
But that’s not to say there aren’t areas where Cascade can help Paramount improve.
“We are really good at manufacturing and are very lean and we will help them on that front where they see changes need to be made and where we see areas of improvement,” Emerson adds.
One of the reasons Paramount was so attractive was its strong presence in Arizona, a state in which Cascade did not have a large footprint.
“We had entered that market about a year and a half ago serving them [Arizona dealers] out of Salt Lake,” says Emerson. “We were definitely growing but it was expensive logistically speaking. We are extremely customer driven and service focused and it’s hard to do that from far away.”
He adds that Cascade planned on entering the Southwest market before the downturn [2009 and 2010]. “We had talked to a few companies in Southern California and Arizona,” says Emerson. “But the thing that stood out with Paramount was their culture and their fit with ours from a customer driven standpoint.”
So are there other “holes” in Cascade’s footprint yet to be filled?
“We are in an acquisitive mode but we are going to do it smartly and strategically,” says Emerson. “We won’t buy companies for the sake of buying. Right now we are focused on integrating Paramount with Cascade and once we are comfortable with that we will talk about the next footprint expansion.”