The story
JELD-WEN was founded in 1960 by Richard "Dick" Wendt when he, together with four business partners, bought a millwork plant in Klamath Falls, Oregon. The company first established operations to support their millwork business and later added other materials to its offering including fiber, vinyl, aluminum and steel.
During the 1970s and 1980s, JELD-WEN grew through vertical integration and acquisition. By 1989, JELD-WEN was ranked seventh among privately held companies in Oregon with revenues of more than $350 million.
Throughout the 1990s, JELD-WEN continued diversification efforts, moving into additional areas of service and expanding to new countries and continents. In 1996, Forbes ranked JELD-WEN at 225 of the nation's top 500 privately owned companies. In 1997, it was ranked 119 and revenues were estimated at $1.39 billion.
By the early 2000s, JELD-WEN was operating throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Chile, Europe, Australia, and Asia. JELD-WEN also diversified in to the home center business and began selling through big-box retailers. The Asian operations were divested in 2023.
JELD-WEN was recapitalized by Onex Corporation in 2011 following the housing market downturn. JELD-WEN went public through an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange on January 27, 2017. The company completed a secondary offering in May 2017.
In 2016, door manufacturer Steves & Sons sued JELD-WEN on antitrust grounds for its 2012 acquisition of rival doorskin manufacturer Craftmaster International (CMI). In 2021 the Fourth Circuit affirmed the trial judge's remedy that JELD-WEN must sell CMI's Towanda factory, which was the first time that a private lawsuit led to an order to divest. In 2023, Towanda sold the plant to a subsidiary of private equity company Platinum
Equity Advisors, LLC.
From Wikipedia’s article on Jeld-Wen, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.7