Overhead Door Corp.

Heading for Self-Storage

The Overhead Door Corp., based in Dallas, pioneered the upward-acting door industry,inventing the first overhead door in 1921 and the first electric door opener in 1926.Today, the company and its divisions--including W.B. McGuire for loading dock equipmentand impact traffic doors, and Horton Automatics for automated pedestrian entrances--isrecognized as one of the nation's single-source manufacturers of integrated door andoperator systems for residential, commercial and industrial applications.

According to Blake Griffin, director of product management for Commercial Door Systems,the goals of Overhead Door are to bring the company's 78 years of experience, knowledge,expertise and resources to the self-storage market with quality products and unequaledservice.

"In the commercial marketplace, Overhead Door is considered a leading doormanufacturer. Now our goal is to become the leading door and interior-wall-systemmanufacturer in the self-storage industry as well," says Clark Hotard, regional salesmanager and a veteran of the self-storage industry.

The 870 SS Door

How does the company propose to achieve these goals? With the production of qualityself-storage products, such as the 870 SS door. The stated benefits to this productinclude:

The company also offers full-flush and semi-flush interior-wall systems designed andengineered for self-storage, climate-controlled applications.

Unique in Service

Griffin outlines the commitment of his company as being two-fold: One commitment is toprovide the right door to the customer when they need it; the other is to provide a uniqueapproach to service not currently offered in the industry.

"Today, if someone installs a 500-door job and the facility owner has to replace adoor or needs one repaired two years down the road, he has to go into the Yellow Pages andfind a local door company," explains Griffin. "Overhead Door has more than 400distributors around the country. So, a facility owner knows and can easily find one of ourdistributors and get the service he needs. That's very unique. Overhead Door is the onlymanufacturer I know of that bring that can bring this to the self-storage industry."

Looking Ahead

According to Griffin, Overhead Door is not only utilizing its own internal resources,it is also incorporating industry-experienced people such as Hotard. "As a veteran ofthe self-storage industry, he brings his unique experiences and knowledge that will be akey ingredient to our success in this market," Griffin says.

Hotard says he sees continuing success for Overhead Door in the self-storage industry."There's certainly market share available for all of us to attack and still survivein the business. The business hasn't had a dip in it for quite a while, and I don'tforesee one," he says. "I see continued growth, and that's one of the reasonsOverhead Door has decided this is a good time to enter the market. We're not trying toreinvent the wheel, we're just trying to make it better."

With multiple manufacturing locations throughout the United States, a state-of-the-artInternational Technical Center for design and engineering and a national network ofauthorized Overhead Door Ribbon distributors, the company's capabilities are undisputed.Overhead Door Corporation is a subsidiary of Sanwa Shutter Corp. of Tokyo, Japan. For moreinformation, call (972) 869-1666, or visit the company's web site at www.overheaddoor.com.

"In the commercial marketplace, Overhead Door is considered a leading doormanufacturer. Now our goal is to become the leading door and interior-wall-systemmanufacturer in the self-storage industry as well."