From its founding, Pella has focused on bringing you innovative window and door solutions that help make life easier. And our branch — Pella Northland — has brought those solutions to our region for more than 85 years.
Pella Corporate — Where It All Began
Pella Corporation has a rich heritage, beginning in 1925 in the small Dutch community of Pella, Iowa. It all began when Pete and Lucille Kuyper decided to invest in a new invention, the Rolscreen? — a window screen that rolled up and down like a shade. From there, they founded the Pella Corporation, and over the years, Pella has continued to lead the way in technology and product innovation.
To this day, Pella is still owned by the Kuyper family and headquartered in Pella, Iowa. Pella Corporation now employs more than 8,000 people with 17 manufacturing locations and more than 200 showrooms across the country.
Pella Northland — Rooted in Our Community for More Than 85 Years
Our history is deeply rooted in this community, going back to our beginnings in the 1930s. The Pella distributorship in the area was originally owned by the Johnson family and was called Pella Products. Some of our first business locations were on Washington Avenue and Kasota/University Ave, as well as in Roseville, MN. Pella Products sold windows and doors, as well as other Pella branded products of the time, including wood accordion-style closet doors.
When the business was acquired by Pella Corporation in April 1997, it became the corporately-owned subsidiary Pella Windows & Doors—Twin Cities, Inc. In 1998, our headquarters were moved to Plymouth, MN. An acquisition in 2001 added the Fargo, ND distributorship to the territory. Demand for window and door replacement by area homeowners drove the development of Pella’s “Windows Made Easy” business during this period.
In 2011, Ed Engelbrecht, a 30+ year employee of Pella Corporation, purchased the distributorship, and Pella Northland was formed. Ed’s focus on people, products, and process brought further growth to the business. Investments in new window and door showrooms in Woodbury, Plymouth, Rochester, Eau Claire and Fargo, paved the way for an excellent window and door experience for customers.
In 2019, business executive and entrepreneur Peter Martin joined the distributorship as President and Owner. Today, Pella Northland employs over 150 people, serving customers throughout Minnesota, the Eastern Dakotas and Western Wisconsin.
Rooted in the local community, Pella Northland has the ability to specialize our products to your precise needs. All of our products are made to order to provide you with ideal solutions to meet your specific design, style, and material needs.
We pride ourselves in bringing you innovative, aesthetically pleasing, and energy efficient windows and doors. With a beautiful, eco-friendly solution for every budget, Pella is the clear choice for your next project. And the team of local window and door experts at Pella Northland is here to help you find the right solution for your needs.
Pella Northland’s Values
At Pella Northland, our values strengthen our culture and form the foundation of everything we do. Some of the values we hold are:
- Maintaining a positive attitude
- The importance of all team members
- A focus on customer experience rather than tasks
- Providing solutions and taking care of our customers
- Embracing change and continuous improvement
- Total integrity in everything we do
This last point is exemplified in something our own Jeff Hanson (who has been with Pella for 40 years!) said: “If it isn’t right, you fix it right now.”
This commitment to integrity, along with our other values, is what determines the new products we create, how we treat our customers, and the overall company culture we work to build at Pella Northland. We pride ourselves on having created a culture that has stood the test of time, caring for our customers and employees alike.
Kevin Gustafson, who has seen a lot of changes in the more than 30 years he has worked with Pella, says, “I’ve seen 200 people come and go...but one thing that hasn’t changed is the culture.”
The Pella Northland Difference — Our People, Our Products, and Our Process
Along with our values, what most sets Pella Northland apart from our competition are our people, our products, and our process.
Our People: Window and Door Specialists
While others in the industry are generalists who know a little about multiple aspects of the building process, our team members are window and door experts. From our local showrooms to our company headquarters, the people of Pella Northland know windows and doors inside and out.
And our employees stick around. It’s not uncommon for Pella Northland employees to stay in their jobs for decades (or in many cases, their entire careers!). When you work with Pella Northland, you work with an experienced, knowledgeable team.
Our Products: Innovative Options for Every Project
At Pella, we have a passion for innovation, and are always developing new products to meet our customers’ needs. Jodi Willson of our Fargo, ND branch said it well: “Pella is good at doing forward thinking and staying one step ahead.”
And Ned Habedank (also of our Fargo location), adds “Pella has always been a very innovative window company. They’ve been a leader in setting trends and putting new things out in the marketplace.”
While our competitors offer a single product, we offer a wide range of options. We can provide a like-for-like product or the opportunity for our customers to trade up or down to meet their needs.
Our Process: Personalized Customer Service
As both a B2B and a B2C company, we strive to provide the utmost in customer service to individual homeowners, contractors, and trade partners alike. We offer a high level of care and commitment to each customer, with the goal of delivering a 5-star experience to every customer, every time.
In the words of our owner, Peter Martin, “In a world where you can buy anything online and it arrives in a cardboard box, our business gets very personal”.
Pella Northland is passionate about personalized customer service. You can see this reflected in online reviews where our customers call out their sales reps by name or in the way we work directly with our customers to meet service or recovery needs, rather than sending them to a third party service provider. This personalized service has resulted in customers who stay with us for the long term — some of our customers have been with us for decades!
In the more than 85 years we have served our region, Pella Northland has consistently prioritized relationships and remained rooted in our community.
What’s Next for Pella Northland?
As our own Ed Engelbrecht says, “innovation is a passion at Pella.”
Throughout our history, Pella has always been innovative, providing new solutions for how you operate and use your windows and doors, and those innovations will keep coming.
In addition to our products we also offer services like installation for homeowners. We hope to add installation for commercial and trade customers in the future as well.
And in general, at Pella Northland we expect to see across-the-board growth over the coming years. Our region is lacking in quality housing to match our expected population growth, so we expect to see growth in both single and multi-family new homes to meet that need. Pella’s innovative solutions for windows and doors will be an integral part of building homes for future generations in Minnesota.
Whether you’re looking for replacement windows for your home or commercial building, or for the right windows and doors for your new construction project, Pella Northland will be here to supply innovative solutions to meet your needs.