Your Business: Woman opens new window on world

Heidi Johnston is looking to expand her window joinery business to other parts of Auckland and says more women are needed in the male-dominated industry. Photo / Paul Estcourt

When Heidi Johnston went to her bank advisers to pitch the idea of buying a joinery fabricator manufacturing business, she was told afterwards that her forecasts were too tough.

A financial adviser on plant and machinery at the time, Johnston didn't want to seem too sure of herself.

The daughter of businessman Neville Collett, she had dreamed of having her own business before the age of 30 and she made it by six months.

In October 2002 she and her husband Bruce bought First Windows and Doors, and changed the name of the company to Windowmakers.

"We sold everything we owned, we lived on credit cards to pay for grocery bills," she says.

The couple paid back everything within three years.

These days, Bruce manages the database and runs the family of three boys while Johnston is managing director.

Johnston, an executive board member of the Windows Association of New Zealand, would like more directorships in the coming years.

"Women definitely have a different focus on business," she says.

"It's about training and coaching staff, taking risks. Women bring that to the table. There need to be more women in this male-dominated industry."

In her time at the company, Johnston has targeted a new upmarket customer.

Windowmakers uses the latest European technology to turn aluminium into high-quality, made-to-spec joinery for residential homes from multimillion-dollar cliff palaces to GJ Gardner.

The attractive head office and factory stands out at its premises in Silverdale. Johnston wanted a welcoming showroom.

"One of the changes we understood was that the homeowner needed to be involved in the purchasing decisions," she says.

A lot of Windowmakers' residential customers are expat families building new high-quality homes, and they have helped the company weather the recession well.

The Silverdale company's other main customers are architects and builders. Windowmakers has project managers who work with them to install the high-tech joinery.

The firm has won a number of awards recently, including the Employer of Choice Award in 2010 at the Westpac Enterprise North Shore Business Excellence Awards.

The company last week won the Bloom Her Businesswoman of the Year's Most Sustainable Business award and Johnston was named runner-up in Her Businesswoman of the Year.

The entrepreneur is mentored by Mike Ashby, an experienced business coach of The Breakthrough Company.

She also attends his workshops.

"I get to sit with Steve Bonnici from Urgent Couriers - we often have the same issues," she says. "Mike Ashby is a sounding board, he knows me and my business well enough to tell me when to harden up."

The businesswoman sits down with her staff - there are 32 in all - to work out what the target turnover will be every year.

"We've got a team who are very committed and who know what they are doing."

They have forecast a $9 million turnover for this year.

Windowmakers is going to be introducing a new "thermally broken" window, which Johnston says will provide the ultimate in thermal efficiency and be very cost-effective.

At the moment you have to pay a premium to get this level of quality. "It will give us a huge point of difference," she says.

And next, the businesswoman would like Windowmakers to be better known over the bridge.

She is planning a presence in central Auckland to address the renovation villa and bungalows market.

She would also like to become more involved with the housing development going on in East Auckland and is looking for joint venture partners or a showroom there.