Barr Co. Plans $10M Expansion, 100 New Jobs

The WeatherBarr facility at 6500 S. Zero St. in Fort Smith.

Window and door manufacturer Harry G. Barr Co. of Fort Smith is planning a $10 million expansion it says could create 100 jobs.

The first phase is expected to begin later this year, and the company is aiming to finish the first two phases by October 2022.

The facility where the company makes its WeatherBarr products is at capacity, so the expansion will allow Barr Co. to meet continued demand from the residential housing construction market in the 12 states where Barr does business. The majority of Barr Co.’s business comes from the residential market, though it does service some smaller hotels.

“Similar to other companies in our category, demand has outstripped supply primarily due to the housing market,” President Michael Barr said in a news release. “This expansion primes WeatherBarr to handle the increased sales demand, but also positions us to accommodate future needs and  lead with advanced manufacturing ability and our consistently high level of quality.”  

Barr told Arkansas Business late last week that the company has been growing both its revenue and workforce for several years. 

“[We’ve] been able to handle little bites of expansion in terms of our workforce, and we’ve reached the point where our facility cannot enable that future growth,” he said. 

“We were very surprised that the growth has continued through a global pandemic, but it has. Housing demand is still very strong. And it’s very strong in all of our markets that we are in.”

Barr described Barr Co.’s service area as being the mid-South, as far east as Nashville south to the Gulf Coast, and then up to St. Louis, Kansas City and Oklahoma City.

Barr said that if the company does all it’s planning to do, its footprint would double from 65,000 SF to 125,000 SF. He expects capacity to increase by about 15% at first, with the ability to scale as needed.

Barr Co. employs about 200 now, and it’s already hired about half of the 100 new workers it expects to need.

The first phase of the expansion will be a new parking lot and entrance. The second phase will include office space, an employee break room, space to house more production capacity and 18,000 SF in outbound distribution space.

The third phase is expected to be 50,000 SF for raw material storage. Barr said that phase could be finished in 2024. The company said the timing of construction on the final phase and its use could change depending on the pace of demand for windows and doors.  

“It’s certainly a challenge to try and add the people now,” Barr said. “But I think we’re talking about some innovative things that are going to help us try and land people, and we do have an applicant pool that’s unusual. It’s very challenging to get people in the building and get them online and get them productive. There’s just so many other jobs that are out there. Everybody’s got openings they need to be filled.

“I hope they can see the value in working for a growing company that is family-driven, a third-generation family business. We like to keep our people … and we want to take care of everybody and treat them like family. And so we think we have a good value position for them.”