EVERETT — It’s hard to ignore the history at Goldfinch Bros., which turns 119 years old this year.
Years of accumulated paint splatters decorate the backshop floors in the business’ downtown Everett headquarters, and the big wall map dates back several decades. The current owners believ
e there are fewer than a dozen glass businesses in the U.S. older than Goldfinch Bros.
While proud of the family-owned business’ history, the owners and their employees aren’t stuck in the past. The business, which has long specialized in the sales, installation and repair of windows, doors,
skylights, mirrors and custom glass accents, has grown its commercial business over the years. It’s also involved in some of the region’s most advanced “green” building projects.
Through the changes and growth, Goldfinch Bros. has strived to maintain the personal service that has kept customers coming back for more than a century.
“That’s still what we want to deliver to our clients and customers. It’s also what we look for in the people we hire,” said 51-year-old Greg Goldfinch. He and his brother, Geoff, 53, are the fifth generation to run the family business.
The Everett firm’s continued success hasn’t gone unnoticed, as it recently earned Seattle Business magazine’s Family Business Award for Midsize Companies. Goldfinch Bros. also was one of only two Western Washington window installation and repair companies to get top marks for both quality and price from Puget Sound Consumers’ Checkbook publication. The Goldfinch brothers said credit is due in large part to their employees, who are responsible for upholding the business’ reputation daily.
Keeping a family business going — and in the family — isn’t always easy, especially as younger generations sometimes choose different paths.
But Geoff and Greg Goldfinch were no older than 20 when they both joined the business that their great-great-grandfather and his brother started. Greg said he didn’t feel pressured to join the enterprise by his father Rodney, who retired in 1997 and passed away Dec. 19.
“Instead, I thought the family business created a great opportunity, and I welcomed the challenge,” Greg Goldfinch said.
The Everett-born-and-bred brothers learned the business from the bottom up before advancing in responsibility.
“We created a good team that wanted to take the business to the next level,” Greg Goldfinch added.
As Goldfinch Bros. grew, Greg concentrated his efforts on growing the commercial side, while Geoff has overseen the retail and residential business. Commercial-sized projects — including the design, fabrication and installation of commercial curtain wall systems and storefronts, as well as a range of interior tenant improvement projects — now account for about two-thirds of Goldfinch Bros.’s business, while one-third comes from the residential side. As Greg Goldfinch puts it, their projects now range from $200 to $9 million.
Goldfinch Bros. also has developed a proprietary line of sliding interior door systems that have been installed for several clients, including Microsoft.
That great diversification has helped Goldfinch Bros. ride out the construction industry’s sharp downturn. Its 2010 sales were estimated at just more than $20 million, up by more than 10 percent from the previous year. While the past couple years have been tougher than some, Greg Goldfinch said the firm was able to go into the recession with momentum from years of good growth.
With growth has come expansion. Goldfinch Bros. now employs about 85 people, including more than 50 employees represented by various unions in the glass and glazing trades. In addition to the 18,000-square-foot headquarters and retail location at 2812 Rucker Ave., where brothers Henry and Joseph Goldfinch started it, a similarly sized warehouse not far from Paine Field handles the bulk of commercial business.
Up to 75 percent of the commercial projects Goldfinch Bros. works on are outside Snohomish County, spread from Pierce County to the Canadian border. The firm’s high-profile projects include providing windows or glass accents for the pavilion at the Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Sculpture Park, downtown Seattle’s Fisher Plaza, numerous government and medical center buildings and the new Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation headquarters. Additionally, Goldfinch is involved with two Living Building Challenge projects in Seattle, highlighting the most efficient, sustainable window products available.
Evolving to keep up with innovations in the glass, window and door industry is not new for Goldfinch Bros. The business sold paint for years, but phased that out in the mid-1990s as the big-box hardware stores came to dominate that sector. In the end, the shift proved more beneficial than harmful, according to the brothers.
As the business has expanded, Geoff and Greg Goldfinch have added to the management structure to free them up for the sales and project oversight work they know best. The key move they made in fall 2008 was to hire Scott Murphy as chief operating officer.
“It was a big decision, but one that was necessary. This obviously is a stronger management structure,” Greg Goldfinch said.
Once the decision was made, the brothers had to find the right fit for the job. After Greg Goldfinch got talking at his son’s soccer game to Murphy, who was looking for a career change, the Goldfinches realized they had found their new chief operating officer. “It was a fit,” Greg Goldfinch said.
Murphy, with past money-managing experience in the banking and insurance industries, said he is having “great fun” in the position. With 25 years’ experience in senior-level positions in the insurance, boat-building and construction industries, Murphy also is a licensed accountant and a founder and board member for Everett-based Mountain Pacific Bank. He sums up his mission as making sure Goldfinch Bros. remains a “family friendly, financially responsible” business.
“It was nice to come into a company that does things the right way. That was very evident from day one,” said Murphy, who wears several hats as the chief operating officer. He handles the company’s finances, human resources and information technology, among other things.
For the Goldfinch brothers, it has worked out well, giving them more time to take active roles in the day-to-day business.
“There always were a lot of things we wanted to do but couldn’t before,” said Geoff Goldfinch.
“It’s allowed us to focus on the sales and the glass business that we’re good at,” Greg Goldfinch added.
The brothers also have begun training the sixth generation in the family business. Geoff Goldfinch’s 27-year-old son, Joe, has been involved for several years and is now working under Greg Goldfinch in the commercial glass business.
As the two brothers talk at length about their 30-plus years at Goldfinch Bros., their rapport is evident. Both agree that they’ve largely avoided any sibling rivalry issues while working side by side.
“Amazingly, we’ve always gotten along well. I think we got the strife between us out of the way while growing up at home,” Geoff Goldfinch said with a laugh. But he adds more seriously that the brothers have learned to “let it go” when disagreements have arisen.
“There’s more at stake here than just us,” he said. “There’s a business, there are employees and there are our customers to think about.”
At a glance
Goldfinch Bros. Inc.
Founded: 1892 by brothers Henry and Joseph Goldfinch
Principal owners: Geoff and Greg Goldfinch
Headquarters: 2812 Rucker Ave., Everett
Employees: Approximately 85
Website: www.goldfinchbros.com
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