Modu-Line
Modu-Line was created in 1972 to produce aluminum windows for institutional buildings. The North American Aluminum Corporation of Kalamazoo, Michigan was looking to drop its line of windows in favor of focusing on its aluminum extrusion services, and a group of Marathon County investors came together to set up production in Wausau.
The new company (originally started as "Wausau Windows Inc.") moved onto land owned by president Edwin Jablonski on Single Avenue. Although the plan was originally to find more permanent facilities elsewhere, it ended up working fine for the new company, and it became the main location from which Modu-Line's projected, casement, pivoted, and fixed windows were produced.1
Barbara Wohlfahrtt recalled that it took a great deal of hard work in those early years. She was one of the founding investors and managers, after she left a position at Wausau Metals where she saw no prospects for advancement due to her gender. At ModuLine, Wohlfahrtt remembered finishing invoices or inventories in the office, then going out onto the factory floor to help fabricate windows so the orders could go out on time.2
^ Members of Modu-Line posing during10th Anniversary Celebration, Pictured standing (L to R): Pete Wanta, Pete Waurzaszek, Vic Stroik, and Lawrence Stelzel. Sitting: Ed Jablonski and Barb Wohlfartt
But within a few years, the hard work and sacrifice started to pay off. Modu-Line was doing robust, international business. In 1976, another Jablonski company, Mid-Wisconsin Manufacturing helped to expand the Modu-Line company by providing aluminum extrusion.
Jablonski had started Mid(west) Wisconsin Manufacturing back in 1968 as one of many business ventures in manufacturing. Mid-Wisconsin originally fabricated snowmobiles and utility tailors, but the company was re-purposed to diversify the Modu-Line production. With the purchase of some equipment from a suburban Milwaukee firm, Mid-Wisconsin started to produce double-hung and sliding windows for replacement projects. By the end of the 1970s, the double-hung and sliding window lines were integrated into Modu-Line proper.3
^ Delegation from Modu-Line and the Spanish Government that met in 1979, in Spain.
In 1979, Modu-Line was even in talks with the government of Spain to set up a manufacturing facility in the Iberian Peninsula to provide aluminum windows to the Mediterranean market. Ultimately the Spanish government decided to sponsor another industry, but it showed the growth of the influence and stature of the Wausau-based company.4
New Ownership
After a decade in operation, Jablonski, Wohlfahrtt, and the original investors in Modu-Line had fostered the growth of the small window manufacturing company from its nothing into a successful company, and they decided to move on. Craig Caudill bought out the shareholders and took control over the company in 1982.5 Under Caudill further developments were made, including extensive additions in 1994 and 1995 to the original facilities on Single Avenue
^ Part of the growth of the company included a redesign of their logo and brand.
In 1997, Modu-Line joined Butler Manufacturing's Vistawall Group. Caudill continued to run the factory, and the Modu-Line name continued to be produced locally, but it was owned by a Kansas City-owned company.6
In 2005, the Vistawall Group was purchased by an Australian company, BlueScope Steel. The Melbourne-based company's focus was largely Pacific Markets, and so the Modu-Line facility in Marathon County was sold off.7 Eventually Modu-Line ended up being purchased by Oldcastle Envelope (who had entered Marathon County when it bought Hoffer Glass in 2000). And the Modu-Line brand of windows are still produced in Wausau as part of Oldcastle in the same factory off Single Avenue.
Sources
1. "Wausau Windows opens Monday" WDRH (17 February 1972), 1.
2. Interview with Barbara Wohlfahrtt by Ben Clark, Jablonski Building in Wausau, 28 August 2018.
3. "Modu-Line contributing to city's reputation as window center" WDH (20 June 1978), 26.
4. Interview with Barbara Wohlfhartt
5. "Modu-Line Windows continues to shrine" WDH (27 February 1995), 24.
6. "Modu-Line Windows sold for $11.5 Million" WDH (12 June 1997), 3.
7. "Moduline Windows: crafting commercial windows" WDH (10 April 2005), 14.