Winco Window Celebrates 110 Years
ST. LOUIS, Mo. – In celebration of serving the window industry for 110 years, Winco Window Company is releasing a new video highlighting the keys to the company’s longevity and success.
The video provides insight into Winco’s unique family-like culture, market-responsive innovative ideas and loyal, passionate employees.
The newly released video, The Winco Story, is available to watch on the Winco website and features insightful perspectives from the company’s owners, employees and a customer.
One continuous theme among employees’ responses is “family.” According to Cindy Smith, production control manager and Winco employee for 42 years, “It’s a family-owned business. They’re very compassionate. They care a lot about their employees.”
Michael Rupe, an HR administrator, says, “That’s what makes us unique. It seems as though, at every level, people care not just about the company as a whole and the mission, but they care about the people pushing their mission forward.”
The roots of the company go back to 1915 when Johann Otto Kubatzky, a German immigrant and a licensed architect, homebuilder and contractor-turned-window manufacturer, submitted his first patent application. He developed an aluminum ventilator system that was used for both residential and commercial glass block windows. His two sons, Theodore and Woodrow, built the company by hiring sales reps to sell ventilators nationwide. Many of the original Winco ventilators are still in use today on historic buildings in multiple cities.
The brothers operated the family-owned business from the 1940s through the early 1960s, expanding the product line from ventilators to varying types of windows to meet customers’ needs as they arose. Today the company operates under the guidance of Woodrow’s daughter, Kory Miller, and her husband, Gantt Miller (pictured above), who, like Otto Kubatzy, also has an architectural background.
As president, CEO and board chairman, Gantt Miller credits the company’s longevity to staying a step ahead of competition in developing new products, as well as a proactive response to market conditions.
Winco’s creative and adaptive approach to fenestration has helped maintain the family business. Over the years, Winco has achieved numerous accomplishments within the window industry:
- Introduced crank-out casement windows in the 1950s
- Focused on architectural glass safety by becoming a founding member of the American Architectural Manufacturers Association in 1964, now known as the Fenestration and Glazing Industry Alliance
- Built its AAMA-certified testing chambers
- Developed creative window solutions for energy savings; historical reproduction; high performance against natural disasters such as tornadoes and hurricanes; security windows that protect against forced entry or bullet and missile impact
- Maintained sustainability as a core value in all aspects of Winco’s manufacturing process. A key step forward was the introduction of Transira™ Window Solutions in 2020. This new product is a high-performance window that features smart building technology and a high-performance, built-in blind offering multiple benefits, including increased energy savings, added visual intruder security by lowering and locking out shades and energy-saving benefits