Window Products Inc., the Liberty Lake-based vinyl-window maker, plans to open distribution centers in the Seattle area and Salt Lake City to penetrate those markets further and to stay on a brisk growth clip.


Mark McVay, Window Products vice president of marketing, says the new facilities are scheduled to open during the first week of March and will give the company four distribution centersit currently operates one in Spokane and one in the Boise area. The company also has two manufacturing operations in Spokane and one in Salt Lake City.


In Salt Lake City, the company has leased about 20,000 square feet of additional floor space next to its manufacturing plant for its new distribution center there. Some of the companys manufacturing operation there, however, might spill over into that distribution space, McVay says.


In the Seattle suburb of Auburn, Wash., Window Products has leased about 10,000 square feet of floor space for a distribution center.


The Salt Lake City and Auburn operations each will employ between four and seven people, McVay says. Window Products currently has just over 300 employees, 200 of whom are in Spokane.


Window Products sells its products throughout the western U.S. and already has customers in Western Washington and Utah that it serves through independent dealers. With the two new distribution centers, Window Products will work with its customers in those markets directly in many instances.


Selling directly to builders has really been our strength in the Spokane and Boise markets, McVay says. We expect to carry that on in the Auburn and Salt Lake City markets.


Window Products posted $43 million in sales last year, up 26 percent from $34 million in 2002, McVay says. He says the company is projecting a 15 percent increase in revenues this year, which would put its annual sales at more than $49 million.


McVay attributes last years growth largely to an increase in new-home construction in the western U.S. This year, the company isnt projecting the same rate of growth in housing starts, so its expecting its growth to come from growth in its customer base. The new distribution centers are expected to help generate much of that new business.


Window Products also is considering opening distribution centers in other markets, such as Portland and Denver, in the future, but not this year, McVay says.


In addition to Washington, Idaho, and Utah, Window Products currently does business in Montana, Oregon, California, Hawaii, and Alaska.