George Warren, president and owner of Centennial Windows, has been in the home renovation business for 27 years. (Sue Reeve, Sun Media)

Spurred by a boom in the home renovation business, London's Centennial Windows is in the midst of a hiring blitz.

The Sovereign Road window manufacturer has added 58 staff in the last year, swelling its ranks to 178 workers, and it plans to add another 25 this year, president and owner George Warren said yesterday.

"I feel very proud, very fortunate," he said. "I'm hearing about all this doom and gloom about plant closings and layoffs, but we're seeing phenomenal increase in the home renovation market."

While window sales have grown about 15 per cent annually over the last five years, they're now forecasting a 20 per cent increase this year.

This is in contrast to the manufacturing sector that's lost about 5,000 jobs regionally in the last year.

"People are staying in their homes and they want new products," said Warren.

The figures back him up. New home starts in London and area dropped the first five months of this year to 870 compared to 1,360 last year and in May alone they dropped to 326 from 427.

In addition, a recent survey by the Canadian Home Builders Association states new home starts in Ontario will drop to 65,000 this year from more than 68,000 last year and way off the peaks of 85,000 in 2003 and 2004.

Tom Kerkhoff, president of the London Home Builders Association, isn't surprised by the growth at Centennial Windows, saying that rate of growth is happening at many industries tied to the renovation sector.

"It's been very strong in recent years and continues to be. This is very positive," he said.

A recent survey by the Ontario Home Builders Association states the average Ontario renovation was valued at about $13,000 and nationally $20 billion was spent on upgrading homes, with better energy efficiency as one of the key drivers for that work, said Kerkhoff.

Centennial also has some aggressive expansion plans. It now has 10 offices throughout Southern Ontario and plans to add four in the next two years, although London will remain its manufacturing centre, said Warren.

"It is all about market penetration. I think this is a good example of controlled growth," he said.

In addition to tapping into the home renovation market, the focus among homeowners on saving energy has also helped, as Centennial Windows has won an Energy Star Sustained Excellence honour from Natural Resources Canada.

Up to 25 per cent of a home's heat loss can come from its windows and Warren's Energy Star windows can slash that to 10 per cent, he said.

"I feel very fortunate we have the product for the times. This is helping people as fuel prices go up. There is a movement and it's growing," he said.

Centennial Windows has been in business 27 years.

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