Published March 2002

Air-Tite finds a following across country

By Kimberly Hilden
Herald Business Journal Assistant Editor

Air-Tite Window Manufacturing Inc. isn’t hard to find if you know where to look.

First, you head east on Highway 2. Drive past Monroe; continue past downtown Sultan. On your left, you’ll see a green metal workshop — that’s Air-Tite. Blink, and you’ll miss it.

Or, you can just hop on the Web, type in www.airtitestormwindows.com, and stop by the company’s site.

Either way, you’ll find made-to-order wood and aluminum storm windows.

The company, led by President John Peppmiller, has been around since 1977, and its window products have been sold by dealers throughout the Pacific Northwest. But it wasn’t until April 2001, when Air-Tite launched its Web site, that the company began receiving orders from a national clientele.

“The traffic we’ve experienced at our site and the orders coming in from all around the United States have been beyond our expectations,” Peppmiller said in a prepared statement.

On average, the site gets about 250 hits a week, “which isn’t a lot from an e-commerce standpoint, if that was your sole business, but this is supplementary to our existing base,” said Susan Perretta, who is Air-Tite’s Webmaster and also is in charge of national sales. “So we’re just as pleased as can be that that many people from around the U.S. not only come to the site, but we get e-mails every day from all around the U.S.”

A good number of those people are from the East Coast, “where storm windows are standard fare,” she said. Others are owners of homes that are historical or vintage in nature.

“Most of the houses that call and ask us about that are built between the 1890s and the 1920s, and houses that are on the Historical Registry are not allowed to tear out their windows,” Perretta said. “They have to find an alternate way if they need to weatherize their home. Storm windows are really the only solution for that.”

The company just shipped out 50 windows to a historic restoration project for the courthouse in Alamosa County, Colo., with another 50 windows in the works, Perretta said.

“We are also getting requests from churches throughout the United States who are looking into protecting their valuable stained-glass windows,” Peppmiller said.

During Air-Tite’s busy season, typically fall and winter, the seven-person company produces a couple hundred storm windows each month in a process that involves cutting the frames and glass, priming and painting the wood, and then assembling the window.

During the spring and summer, the company switches gears, turning up production on its other product lines: screen/storm doors, wardrobe doors and mirrors, and log furnishings.

“It’s very rare to get a storm-window order in the summer, but we expect that that will change because of our incredible increase in customer base,” Perretta said. “Now, we will get those people who will plan that they want to do this in the summer.”

Now, Air-Tite is working to expand its distributor base from the Northwest to across the country, which could potentially lead to even more exposure during the coming year, Perretta said.

“I’m expecting things to kind of explode,” she said.

For more information, call Air-Tite at 800-722-4424 or visit the company’s Web site.

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