INDUSTRY ACCESS*

Industry News

VT Industries, Inc. Acquires IDEAL Architectural Doors and Plywood

VT Industries is pleased to announce the acquisition of IDEAL Architectural Doors and Plywood of New Albany, IN as of August 31, 2007. The new IDEAL Door Division will continue to manufacture AA grade flush doors, premium grade stile & rail doors, thick doors (2 ¼ inch or more, rated and non-rated), over-size doors (up to 5-0 x 12-0), blueprint matched panels and doors, sketch-faced doors and specialty veneers.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.vtindustries.com.

Sale of Mesker Door

Mesker Door is pleased to announce that, on June 1, 2007, Mesker Door, Inc. was purchased by a privately owned company formed and owned by Leroy Jackson, Michael Dowling and Dave Johnson.

For more details, visit www.meskerdoor.com.

People

Berner International Appoints New Marketing Manager

Berner International Corporation has appointed Chris Cooney as the new Marketing Manager for their air curtain and energy recovery divisions.

With over 15 years of marketing management experience, Cooney is expected to be an invaluable asset to the company.  She comes to Berner from The Rock Group, where she worked as an Independent Consultant, focusing on business to business opportunity development and marketing campaigns.  Prior to that, she held marketing positions for Riggs Bank, PNC Financial Services, H.J. Heinz, and GlaxoSmithKline.

For more information, call 1-800-245-4455 or visit www.berner.com.

In Other News...

The Home Depot Inc. completed the $8.5 billion sale of its wholesale distribution business to a group of private equity firms. The sale price was reduced from the $10.3 billion that the buyers had initially agreed to pay for HD Supply in June. Full Story

Onity launched Intellity, its latest innovation in energy management solutions for the lodging industry. Intellity is an intelligent energy saving device that reads the magnetic stripe on Onity hotel-specific keycards to identify and differentiate guest and staff keycards, while disconnecting electrical equipment when guests are out of the room. Because it differentiates between guest and staff cards, it also can prevent hotel housekeeping staff from using certain electrical equipment, such as the television, while cleaning the room, reported HospitalityNet. Full Story

Saflink, an identity and access manufacturer working with biometrics, and IdentiPHI, a privately held provider of enterprise security solutions and consulting services, have announced a definitive merger agreement, reported Security Systems News. Full Story

Sun Prairie, WI-based Trachte Building Systems Inc., a manufacturer of pre-engineered steel buildings for the self-storage industry, is now employee owned thanks to the formation of an Employee Stock Ownership Program (ESOP). The purchase includes the company’s two subsidiary businesses, Trac-Rite Door, a manufacturer of steel roll-up doors, and Fire Facilities Inc., a provider of steel fire-training towers, reported Inside Self Storage. Full Story

Ply Gem Industries, Inc. entered into a definitive agreement to acquire CertainTeed Corporation's vinyl window and patio door business in a cash transaction. CertainTeed's vinyl window business is a leading manufacturer of premium vinyl windows and doors and produces windows for the residential new construction and remodeling markets and produces and sells window lineals to licensed window fabricators in the Eastern United States, reported BuildingOnline.com. Full Story

For new or retrofit construction in commercial and institutional building environments, specifying integrated door opening systems provides a surprising number of benefits for a wide number of applications. They are ideal solutions for cross corridor doors, smoke doors, stairwell doors, elevators/shafts and doors with automatic operators. Because the hardware is integrated with the door and installed at the factory, installation costs are dramatically reduced, and problems of hardware compatibility and misalignment are virtually eliminated according to Buildings.com. Full Story

The Olympian profiles Lacey Door & Millwork Inc., a manufacturer of custom-made doors and other millwork. Full Story

* DHI Members may submit news releases to be considered for inclusion in DHI's IndustryWatch. Send to: jmadden@dhi.org.


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