Hurd Windows and Doors has returned to profitability and continues to push product innovation in the 3-1/2 years since it reorganized under Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the company’s president and CEO said Thursday.

"We have better control of costs, better supplier partners, a better way of going to market," Dominic Truniger said in an interview with ProSales during the International Builders’ Show in Orlando, Fla. He added that revenues at the Medford, Wis.-based firm have risen 25% over the past year.

Truniger stressed that Hurd’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2008 was a product of financial troubles, not personnel issues. "The brand was solid. The people are there," he said. "What we went through isn’t a people thing; we went through a financial distress situation." That distress ended, essentially, when Longroad Asset Management of Connecticut bought the company in December 2008. The acquisition left Hurd debt-free and able to invest in its business, Truniger said.

He pinned future growth in large part on the company’s ability "to create innovative products that provide value … and that allow our dealers to value-engineer a project." One example is a window insert that remodelers can install from outside the house, thus making it less likely the installer will have to undergo the rigors of dust abatement in compliance with new lead-paint rules.

In fact, Hurd has shifted its focus over the past two years toward the repair and remodel segment as new-home business crumbled, marketing manager April Lucas said during the same interview. But while Hurd has shifted sectors, it doesn’t expect to compete at all price points.

"We know we won’t be the low-cost provider. That’s not our niche," Truniger said. He noted that even when Hurd entered the vinyl window segment by purchasing SuperSeal Manufacturing Co. of South Plainfield, N.J., its goal was to sell high-end vinyl products.

Hurd also eschews the big-box stores, choosing instead to sell itself through roughly 350 building material dealers nationwide. That number is more likely to shrink than grow, Truniger said.