Our industry loses another valued producer of building materials.End of an era: Jeld-Wen shuts down Oshkosh door plantJeld-Wen's Oshkosh door manufacturing facility closes after 154 years of manufacturing doors. This plant was one of the largest manufacturers of ornate
wooden doors in the nation. Competition from fiberglass and metal doors, along with the economic decline, left no choice but to discontinue operations here. There are about 1,400 companies in the US wood window and door manufacturing industry with combined annual revenue of about $14 billion. The industry is concentrated: the 50 largest companies control about 70 percent of the market. Demand for wood windows and doors is closely tied to residential construction activity, both
new construction and
remodeling. As these manufacturers cutail and shutdown, there will be smaller product lines and less supply for the
Atlanta-Athens, Georgia area.
There are literally hundreds of lumber, plywood and
OSB mills that have closed in the last 3 years. Some may re-open, but many have been dismantled and even transformed into different types of businesses, never to manufacture building products again.