Family company wins annual Community Impact Award from Minnesota Business magazine
WARROAD, Minn. — Feb. 25, 2013 — For four generations spanning more than a century, the Marvin family has worked to create jobs and thriving communities in Minnesota – even refusing to lay off workers during a major housing recession.
Recognizing those efforts, their family-owned and operated company, Marvin Windows and Doors, has been honored with a 2013 Community Impact Award from Minnesota Business magazine. Marvin Windows and Doors was selected as the winner in the Employment category, which honors companies that have brought major employment to a community in Minnesota – or kept it there.
“We’re honored and humbled by this recognition,” said Susan Marvin, President of The Marvin Companies. “For more than a century, our philosophy has been to do what’s right for our company, our customers and our communities. Those principles are at the core of everything we do. We simply don’t know any other way to operate.”
Marvin employs more than 2,000 people in Warroad, a town of 1,700 residents. The company’s successful efforts to preserve and grow Minnesota jobs during the long economic downturn have been covered widely in the national media, by outlets including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press, Bloomberg Business News, CNBC, Fox News and others.
During the 2012 presidential campaign, President Obama repeatedly held up Marvin as an example to the nation for its efforts to preserve jobs. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney also praised Marvin. Despite the worst conditions in the housing industry since the Great Depression, Marvin didn’t lay off any of its workers. Instead, workers and managers alike gave up pay and perks to keep everyone on the job – and preserve their community from the devastating impact of widespread layoffs.
“We’re not trying to be an example for the world,” Susan Marvin said. “We’re just running our business the same way my grandfather and my father ran it.”