Graham Architectural Continues Focus of Impact Glazing Through Acquisition of FM Enterprises

Graham Architectural Products (GAP) in York, Pa., had been looking for more than a year to make an entry into the curtainwall arena when it announced its purchase of FM Enterprises last week (

"As I understand it, the search for a company for this type of an acquisition has been going on for a little while when we finally came to the conclusion that FM was the right company for, us in terms of matches in a lot of different things, including corporate culture," Jim Eisenbeis, director of marketing for GAP, tells USGNN.com? Eisenbeis adds, "It's a real nice complement to our product line, because everything they do we don't do and vice versa." Eisenbeis also cites FM's "superior customer service" as a good complement to GAP's corporate values.

As last week's announcement noted, Eisenbeis says, "FM is going to continue to operate as it has, with its existing employees and management; the people who owned FM, Todd Frederick and his staff, will continue to run the company."

The biggest change, at present, for FM will be the expansion of its product distribution. Although the company does offer its products nationwide, Eisenbeis adds, "They're probably not as widely distributed as we [GAP] are."

For companies familiar with GAP's range of high-performance blast-, impact- and bullet-resistant products, that focus is expected to carry over to the curtainwall company as well.

"They have some blast products," Eisenbeis says of FM. "Not quite as extensive as what we have, but certainly blast continues to be a focus for us and will be for both companies."