LBM company closes after 118 years

Norfolk Sash & Door, a supplier of windows, doors, molding and security hardware in Virginia’s Tidewaters area since 1893, closed its business on July 29, according to an article in the Virginian-Pilot.

Originally opened as a sawmill, the family-owned business grew into a full-service building materials supplier and moved into a Norfolk industrial park in 1961. Owner Howard Filer, whose grandfather bought the company with two other partners in the 1920s, blamed the prolonged housing downtown for the failure of the business. Demand for the doors, knobs, lumber and framing supplies the company sells has plummeted, he said. "There are no customers out there," Filer added.

Revenues dropped below $3 million last year, according to the newspaper, and Filer gave the business until June to improve. When that didn’t happen, Filer began calling construction yards in s 50-mile radius to look for jobs for his seven remaining employees.