Cascade Windows, a longtime Spokane Valley manufacturer of vinyl windows, has acquired a Portland-area window maker with more than 100 employees and a high-end window line that will broaden Cascade Window's product mix.

Randall Emerson says he has sold LbL Windows Inc., of Wood Village, Ore., to Cascade Windows, and as part of the transaction has become an equity owner and president of the Spokane Valley-based company. Garman Lutz, who had been president at Cascade Windows, now is its chief financial officer, Emerson says.

Emerson says the Oregon company, which did business as LbL Windows & Doors, had employed about 110 people at its 100,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in the Portland suburb of Wood Village. Cascade Windows has taken on LbL Window's employees and will continue to operate that plant, he says.

LbL's product line of upper-end windows and patio doors will continue to be sold under the LbL Windows & Doors name, but now will be considered part of Cascade Windows' overall product line, he says.

Emerson, who will continue to have his office in Oregon, says the acquisition was completed March 31, but declines to disclose the dollar amount of the transaction.

Cascade Windows manufactures and distributes several lines of entry-level vinyl windows and patio doors, including its signature Cascade line, which are used primarily in new-home construction, Emerson says. LbL, on the other hand, manufactures premium vinyl windows that typically are used for retrofitting in home remodeling projects, he says.

Before the acquisition, Cascade employed about 300 people, including roughly 250 at its manufacturing facility in Spokane Valley, located at 10507 E. Montgomery Drive, Emerson says.

Though Emerson declines to disclose the combined company's revenues for 2008, Cascade Windows had said it had annual sales of $49.4 million for 2008 for a Journal of Business list of Spokane-area manufacturers.

Last year, the company moved its distribution center, corporate offices, and some of its manufacturing operations to a building adjacent to its facility, expanding its building space there to 42,000 square feet.

In addition, Cascade operates a manufacturing facility in Salt Lake City, Utah, and distribution centers in Auburn, Wash.; Boise, Idaho; and Salt Lake City.

Emerson says that he had owned LbL for more than 10 years, and had been considering doing something different when he learned that Cascade Windows wanted to develop an upper-end product. He says the two companies' philosophies were a good match.

"Even though they are in new construction they have almost identical values—strong management and a strong belief in hiring the best people," Emerson says.

There will be little change in the number of employees at the LbL plant, since the market segment for its products is different from that of Cascade Windows, he says. There will be some combining of back-office functions, he says.

Cascade Windows says its products are available at dealers throughout the western U.S.

In 2004, Window Products Inc. changed its name to Cascade Windows, but still is incorporated as Window Products Inc.

At the time of the name change it employed 350 people, including 260 in the Spokane area, a manager said.

LbL's products are sold at about 300 dealers in the western and mid-western U.S., and are exported to South Korea, Australia, and Mexico, Emerson says.