About Us
A brief company history of Signature Door Inc.
The story of Signature Door Inc. begins with a man named Bernd Lewkowitz (1931 –2017). Bernd, or “Bernie”, came to America in 1955 with a family background in the millwork industry. His grandparents owned a mill in the 19th century, his father had been a salesperson for a lumber distribution company, and Bernie drove a truck to deliver trees from the forest to the lumber mills. When he left Europe as an adventurous 24-year-old to develop a new life in America, he met the love of his life for 62 years, Hilde, on the ship that carried them to New York City.
Charles Nixon, Sr. and Bernd Lewkowitz (1999)
The story of Signature Door Inc. begins with a man named Bernd Lewkowitz (1931 –2017). Bernd, or “Bernie”, came to America in 1955 with a family background in the millwork industry. His grandparents owned a mill in the 19th century, his father had been a salesperson for a lumber distribution company, and Bernie drove a truck to deliver trees from the forest to the lumber mills. When he left Europe as an adventurous 24-year-old to develop a new life in America, he met the love of his life for 62 years, Hilde, on the ship that carried them to New York City.
Settling in southern New Jersey, he began working at a local lumberyard and soon thereafter he met Charles Nixon Sr., the father of Signature Door’s CEO, Dennis Nixon Sr. This relationship grew and remained strong for the entirety of their lives. After Bernie started his first business, RSL – a door glass company – he recognized the skill and dedication of the Nixon family and hired many of Charles’ sons.
Bernie’s trust in and friendship with the Nixon family was always evident, and in 1989, he and his wife founded Signature Door and placed management of it into the hands of the Nixon family.
Charles Nixon, Sr. and Bernd Lewkowitz (1999)
Bernd Lewkowitz and Dennis Nixon, Sr. (1998)
Prior to Signature Door’s founding, Bernie saw the U.S. wood door market being largely dominated by imported products. He shared his vision for a high-quality, American-made wood door with Dennis Nixon Sr., who he had come to know well over the years through his relationship with Charles. Dennis shared this vision, and together they mapped a plan to fill this market void through Signature Door Inc., with Dennis as the CEO. Bernie purchased a former roller-skating rink in Altoona, where Dennis was living in Pennsylvania, and once the paperwork had been filed with the city for the company’s inception, he gave the keys and some starting funds to Dennis to begin shaping the identity of the company, with the only caveat being that Signature Door must always remain debt-free.
Signature Door began as an assembly plant of high-end wood doors – purchasing decorative glass units, molding frames, and door slabs with glass cutouts from vendors. However, a desire as true then as it is today, the company wished to further increase the quality of the product within the first few years. This desire led the company into manufacturing, with decorative glass inserts and glass insulation as their first production capabilities. By the mid-1990s, Signature Door was now manufacturing its own door slabs, molding frames, and decorative glass in-house and became the number one decorative glass supplier for RSL (Bernd Lewkowitz’ first company).
With this innovation came the need for expansion, and in both 1993 and 1998, additional warehouse space was added to create an approximately 43,000 square foot facility (around 1 acre). This new expansion paved the way for Signature Door to be ready to tackle a new wrinkle within the door industry – hurricane ratings.
In the decade following the landfall of Hurricane Andrew in 1992, Florida began writing a new hurricane code for construction that would change the industry for coastal home building. Signature Door seized the challenge and began hurricane testing in both the late 1990s and early 2000s. When Florida officially implemented its Florida Hurricane Product Approvals in October of 2003, Signature Door was primed and eager to capitalize. By completing early and extensive testing, including the only hurricane wood door with decorative glass, the early-to-mid 2000s quickly became the most profitable years for the company to date.
Throughout the process of hurricane testing, a common theme that began to continually prevail, as well, was “customization”. Signature Door customers were desirous of more sizes, more designs, more configurations, and many other details that would allow for increased uniqueness in their purchase. Even after completing years of hurricane testing, Signature Door didn’t back away from the desires of the market, and decided to evolve further by bringing in new CNC machinery in the mid-2000s that would serve to further increase not only their capabilities to produce product, but once again, their quality. A short time later, however, progress began stalling quickly in 2007, as the United States started entering the period known as “The Great Recession”.
A story true for many, Signature Door sustained massive loss of business and personnel due to this recession. In the face of these trying times, the company focused on bringing even more formerly-outsourced processes under their roof, once again increasing their capabilities, but just as importantly, helping to mitigate the number of necessary layoffs of many talented craftsmen. This focus led to investments in a number of new machinery purchases, including a 5’ x 11’ flat press and an oil bladder press – a feat only made possible by continued adherence to Bernie’s debt-free business philosophy. The oil bladder press brought in-house a product Signature Door previously pioneered within the door industry – veneered wood panel components; and the flat press addressed a growing industry trend – flush door designs that hearkened back to mid-century modern architecture.
At the close of 2012, Signature Door saw business beginning to stabilize for the first time since before the start of the Great Recession, and 2013 brought renewed hope that the company was poised to continue growing its offerings for customers as a fully-custom, high-quality entryway manufacturer.
Mid-2015 saw another CNC machinery purchase as well as continued growth in the amount of machine knives available to create varying millwork profiles in many different components – whether door moldings and panels, casing trim, shelves, appliques, or divided light bars. Customization continued to be the calling card of the company, and customers reinforced this identity by continually presenting new and unique requests all throughout the 2010s.
Though barely recognizable as the same assembly company that began in 1989, Signature Door has become who they are now by continuously serving today’s customer while also keeping an eye to the future and how best to serve tomorrow’s customer – a tradition that will be carried on as the Nixon family’s second generation begins to take a role in leadership.
Though not without its difficult chapters, the story of Signature Door is one blessed with much prosperity; and as the calendar turns into a new decade, we are excited to continue tackling new challenges for our next 30 years.
