Where Akron's leading companies thrive.
Quanex Building Products: Doing the right thing in business and the community
CVCA’s Drennan Akins, Kaden Victor, and Carter Lee meet with Quanex’s Robert Daniels, Sean Hummel, and Cristina Murray
Photo by Joash Bloom
Company History
Since its founding in 1927, Quanex Building Products has been dedicated to providing products of the highest quality to manufacturers around the world. Quanex produces high-end, energy-efficient fenestration products along with bath and kitchen components, and vinyl profiles. Originally named the Michigan Seamless Tube Company, the company grew and expanded into manufacturing many products and thus changed its name in 1977 to Quanex Corporation. From 1980 to 1990 they experienced a great deal on defining who the company was and what it focused on. In 2008, they separated their steel and building corporations.
Quanex Building Products Corporation achieved great success within numerous construction and building markets. As an industry-leading manufacturer of components sold to Original Equipment Manufacturers in the building products industry, Quanex continues to make great strides, distinguishing themselves from their competitors.
Company Structure
With thirty-four offices around the world and nearly four thousand employees worldwide, Quanex is made up of three different divisions. The North American Fenestration Division, headquartered in Akron, deals with creating fenestration components. To put it simply, fenestration is the arrangement, proportioning, and design of windows and doors in a building, including both residential and commercial. Quanex has one of the largest selections of options, including insulating glass spacers, window screens, and door and window components.
Second, the North American Cabinet Components, which supplies just as its name would imply. Quanex does not make the cabinets themselves, but instead produces the necessary parts for creating the final cabinets.
The last division is a vinyl extruder based out of the United Kingdom. Vinyl extrusion is the process of manufacturing vinyl profiles, of which Quanex is a premier provider of commercial and residential vinyl window and door profiles.
It is also important to note that Quanex is in the business-to-business market as Robert Daniels, president of the North American Fenestration Division explains, “The best way to summarize all that we as a company do is to define us as a ‘component manufacturer’. With a variety of systems, finishes, and accessories, we offer our customers much more when they work with us. We are an integral part of what each of our customers make.” Through their partnership approach and exceptional services, Quanex helps businesses meet the needs of their OEM customers and helps their market thrive.
Team Culture
Though Quanex values the quality of its products and performance, the company values its people even more. Daniels attributes much of the company’s success to its well-established culture. The core values are further exhibited through Quanex’s CREED.
Quanex CREED
C – Continuous improvement and innovation
R – Respect with open and honest communication
E – Excellent customer service
E – Exemplifying safe and healthy living
D – Doing the right thing
Daniels notes, “We live by that motto everyday,” specifically referring to “doing the right thing.”
Additionally, Quanex’s leadership has an “open-door” policy that contributes to the company’s culture and success. Daniels further explains, “Anybody can approach me, my door is always open. Sean’s door is always open, and Cristina’s door is always open. We do not manage by sending an urgent email if we need something, we go across the hall and we visit and we talk through things and I think that open, honest culture is what helps us succeed every day.” Quanex has its culture in mind especially when it comes to hiring decisions, too. “When somebody gets far along in the interview process, they have already been vetted on the technical stuff. Now it is up to me to figure out, will they fit the culture? Are they going to invest in the culture forward?” says Daniels. An emphasis on building a great team culture has led to much of the success Quanex has today.
Office Location
For the past five years, Quanex’s headquarters for the North American Fenestration division has resided in the AES Building in Akron at 388 South Main Street on the corner of Cedar and South Main streets. Formerly located in Solon, the Downtown Akron location gives the firm access to the skilled and gifted community that surrounds it. “The talent level here is exceptional. We have been able to find a lot of good people from basically the day we moved in,” says Daniels.
The location also allows Quanex to collaborate with the University of Akron and other schools in the area. “We had our most recent conversation with the University of Akron to do some collaborative projects. We put together a list of projects that we are going to meet and discuss and we have already sent them sort of a feeder list of ten which they were pretty excited about,” notes Hummel. Additionally, the company aims to work with more schools in the future, including high schools and middle schools as well as trade schools. “We are trying to promote the technical schools and the apprenticeships, too. We need good electricians, maintenance technicians, and lab technicians, and those people are often difficult to find,” says Hummel.
The AES Building offers over a thousand, free, suburban-style parking spaces for visitors and employees. AES shares its property line with the Ohio and Erie towpath hike and bike trail, and is amidst the many cultural, music, arts, food, educational, entertainment, government and transportation amenities of an urban setting. The location with its many amenities makes the AES Building the place where “Akron’s leading businesses thrive”.
Through The Schipper Group’s connection to Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy, three students from the School of Business and Entrepreneurship had the chance to interview Quanex Building Products’ North American Fenestration Division President, Robert Daniels, the Director of Research and Development, Sean Hummel, and the Director of Marketing, Cristina Murray. These students, Drennan Akins, Kaden Victor, and Carter Lee were accompanied by the program’s Director, Alicia Chamberlain
