When lockdowns and restrictions were put in place to battle COVID-19, Quaker Window Products in Freeburg took steps to protect staff and the community, and now, a year later, the manufacturer has thrived with continued growth.
“When the crisis began last year, Quaker leadership formed a Crisis Response Team that met seven days a week for months establishing and implementing safety protocols, acquiring PPE for employees, establishing cleaning and sanitizing schedules for all work areas, working with state and county health departments and developing programs to protect employees that were identified as ‘high-risk at the peak of the outbreak by state and federal agencies,” said Chief Marketing Officer Bill Sifflard. “We do not have to meet as much anymore, but there is a team that still coordinates between Quaker management, operations, human resources, and manufacturing to keep our finger on the pulse regarding changes to guidelines and constantly communicate with state and county health officials.”
Just last week, Quaker held clinics for all its employees who wanted to receive the vaccine.
“We have made the vaccine available to all of our employees and had clinics on our different campuses to administer shots to those who wished to receive them,” said Sifflard. “We also offered an incentive to employees that participated in the vaccination clinic. It was a huge success and a big thank you has to go to OCHD here in Freeburg for their support.”
Osage County Health Department (OCHD) Administrator Kim Sallin has provided on-site injections to larger businesses to make it easier for employees to get the vaccine.
“We appreciate her willingness to visit our plant to streamline the process,” said Sifflard.
Due to ongoing preventive measures — including the administration of the vaccine — Quaker has successfully maneuvered the pitfalls many large companies have faced.
“There is no doubt that supply chains have been strained this past year and that moving materials in and finished products out was challenging for our logistics team for a number of months, but they did an amazing job,” Sifflard said. “Quaker works very closely with our suppliers around the country and has not experienced shortages that some have. Our purchasing team has also been very proactive to manage inventories and safety stock even with 20 percent growth in 2020.”
Sifflard added that with new housing starts, Quaker has been tasked with supplying windows for many new homes. “Quaker has been blessed to have stayed busy and growing throughout this past year,” he said. “We live in a state that supports its businesses and cares about keeping its citizens employed. The commercial window and door side of our business was most affected, as projects around the country were put on hold in areas most impacted by the pandemic, but now they seem to be coming back strong as we head into the second quarter of the year. The residential housing market has remained strong and we continue to see record growth in our business.”
Lead times have not been greatly impacted by the pandemic, Sifflard noted. “That really is a testament to our people though who strived to work safely as a team to keep production running,” he added. “Increased demand for Quaker products is our greatest challenge, but we are adding new equipment and continue to expand our team to meet our customers' delivery expectations.”
While some companies have been forced to cut back hours or lay off personnel, Quaker is not among them.
“With the amazing support of our dedicated employees and the implementation of numerous COVID-19 health and safety precautions within all of our facilities, we were able to remain open throughout this crisis and have actually grown our workforce and looking to hire more people at both our Freeburg/Maries campuses and Eldon campus,” said Sifflard. “There are numerous open job opportunities at Quaker.”
Anyone looking for job opportunities is encouraged to visit www.QuakerCareers.com to learn more.