This year, the U.S. will import over $150 million worth of windows to meet the increasing demand for energy-efficient building products. Because windows represent up to one-third of a building’s energy loss, architects and builders have increasingly turned to German manufacturers for technologically advanced and highly engineered windows and doors. Recognizing that the need for energy-efficient, environmentally friendly, and competitively priced windows will continue to grow, Menck Windows USA is building a new manufacturing facility in the United States. Developed, in partnership with Menck-Fenster of Hamburg, Germany, the new Menck Windows U.S. facility, located in Chicopee, Mass., will begin designing and building finely crafted wood and aluminum clad windows and doors for architects and builders throughout North America. The new U.S. operation will produce windows and doors to the exacting specifications found at Menck-Fenster’s production facility in Schwerin, Germany. For over 100 years, Menck-Fenster has produced both traditional and contemporary products for award-winning architectural projects worldwide. The new Menck Windows, 75,000 s/f production facility will use advanced software and German built CNC machinery for close tolerance design, assembly, glazing and material handling. The new facility will represent the best in worker safety and in environmentally sensitive and sustainable business practices. As with Menck-Fenster, Menck Windows’ new products and production process will be energy-efficient and environmentally friendly. The product line includes in-swing (tilt and turn, casement, pivot-hung, sliding and folding), out-swing windows (casement, awning, folding) and a full range of door products. With applications for high-end residential and commercial windows product will be all wood or more typically, wood with aluminum cladding. Menck USA is led by an executive and production team with decades of window and wood experience in the U.S. The Menck USA group has worked with well-known wood window and door companies both in the U.S. and Canada. The team has extensive design and production capabilities in windows, doors and hardware. Having spent the previous five years as COO of a custom window and door company, I was excited by the opportunity to work with Bodo Liesenfeld and Rolf Menck to get Menck USA up and running. And I am very pleased with the fact that we were able to pull together such a talented and experienced management team. Alan Wall, our director of sales and marketing, has over twenty years in the building products industry, including a decade-long record of success in the high-end window and door business. Our director of manufacturing, John Benjamin, III, has over two decades of experience in the wood products industry. Michael Pusch, a German citizen, is director of technology transfer and R&D, and likewise has nearly 20 years of experience in the window fabrication and window hardware businesses. The Menck Windows board also includes: Bodo Liesenfeld, founder and chairman of the board of Menck Windows and managing partner of Liesenfeld International, GmbH, a private investment firm, and Rolf Menck, managing partner of Menck-Fenster GmbH, of Hamburg, Germany. We recognized that the need for competitively priced and highly engineered windows will continue to grow. We’re looking forward to providing customers some of the very finest windows to ever be made in America. The new plant is scheduled to begin operations in the fall of 2014. Until full production, the company will produce windows, doors and window walls for builders and architects with its German partner, Menck-Fenster. Todd Bachelder is the CEO at Menck Windows, Chicopee, MA.