Associated Building Supply, Inc. recognized Nationally for overall excellence in the professional market October 27, 2014 by Window & Door Magazine. At Associated Building Supply, the sales team spends a lot of time developing relationships and building trust with architects. “We work hard to protect and enhance their reputation with the homeowner by ultimately taking the burden of the window and door decision off their shoulders,” says Vice President Scott Thurber, who joined the company eight years ago when owner Chris Cole decided to expand the business. During his tenure, Thurber has helped grow ABSi to eight showroom locations in California—ranging from San Diego to Northern California—and 20 sales-people.

 “ABSi sales experts take ownership with each customer and are committed to the service they provide from start to finish on every project,” says Jason Funk, president of Western Window Systems, which supplies ABSi. “They work to build the customer’s vision and stay on budget.” To enable the sales team to offer top-notch service, ABSi gives its sales consultants access to all eight showrooms for customer meetings and to use work stations when on the road. Since the company uses a cloud-based system, consultants have access to a private, real-time sales dashboard, quoting software, customer contracts and business records. “With a salesforce of tenured industry professionals, LaCantina Doors has the utmost confidence in ABSi’s ability to manage complex projects and support our mutual customers,” says Tim Kelting, national sales director for LaCantina Doors, which Associated Building Supply carries in its showrooms. “ABSi draws from a broad range of experience and has proven its ability to successfully exceed the service expectations of builders, architects and designers, as well as homeowners and end users.” Jeld-Wen Sales Manager Larry Case says he appreciates ABSi’s “continual training” for its employees and their professional customers—contractors and architects—who regularly attend Jeld-Wen manufacturing and plant training and tours. “You can expect an ABSi consultant to know the answer to product questions or know the best path to get an answer quickly,” he says. Thurber says the company helps its customers through value engineering and knowledge. “When some people look at plans, they see it as gospel. We look at it as art—requirements, codes, installation, aesthetics—all the things the homeowner, builder, and architect are after rolled into one package. That’s where we shine. We spend a great deal of time on the "complete package" by providing window & door intellectual property as the consultant of choice, the expert.” The method seems to be working. ABSi has achieved 40-50 percent growth per year over the past three years, according to Thurber. “We did well during the Recession by focusing on the high-end luxury home niche, which didn’t suffer like the production home segment.”

ABSi is committed to finding employees who Thurber says “are leaders, more professional. We continue to grow and hire all the time. We’re trending at $21 million for this year and our goal is to be at $50 million in the next three to four years.” ABSi is a 2-time winner of the prestigious Dealer of the Year award.  DOTY 2010