Ken Smith, president of ASILIMITED, says the joint venture will become "the only manufacturer of unitized curtainwalls in North America that will control all aspects of manufacturing in-house," including the manufacturing of tempered, laminated and insulating glass and aluminum panels integral to the unitized systems. According to information from PGT, exterior facade contractors nationally will save time and money by dealing with one organization that will market, design, engineer and manufacture custom unitized curtainwalls.

"By offering a one-stop-shop for unitized curtainwalls to the commercial construction industry, we are offering the industry a way to save money and gain control over their projects by dealing with one team that is involved in every stage of the project as it moves from design to construction," said Wayne Varnadore, vice president of architectural systems at PGT. "Customers will benefit from PGT's strength in manufacturing and supply chain management combined with ASILIMITED's extensive experience in sales, marketing, engineering and project management. This is another positive step in the expansion of PGT's Architectural Systems commercial product capabilities."

According to Smith, the joint venture comes as a result of "the national demand for unitized curtainwall and the downturn in the residential community [which] provided additional resources from PGT that could be utilized in the commercial market through ASILIMITED sales and marketing."

Smith reports that while the focus of the joint venture is currently unitized curtainwall, "PGT is diversifying and will market some entry-level curtainwall products in the upcoming months."

Although the two companies had not worked together prior to a management meeting in August 2007, the current agreement is exclusive on all unitized curtainwall products. However, Smith notes that the exclusive agreement won't impact ASILIMITED's commercial installation business.

"We view ourselves as material partners to any façade contractor-we bring additional knowledge and experience to these companies," Smith says. "Being a contractor, we are more sympathetic to the issues these companies face in design and constructability. We can help a company grow into markets that they previously did not pursue." He adds, "ASILIMITED will still provide installed project strategically located in our markets. We will not be a competitor to any alliance we develop."