Detroit to Birmingham in 1958, and the
brothers attended Seaholm High School.
Their mother, Lorriane, 80, still lives in
Birmingham.
Family succession in various businesses
often causes problems and dissension,
but this was not an issue at Wallside
after Martin Blanck's death. The family
had an orderly succession plan, the sons
divided up the duties and now share
management responsibilities to keep
everything operating smoothly.
"My fat:her's name and reputation
meant everything to him," Fred said.
"He treated his employees and cus-
tomers like his own family ... He always
had a vision, and he wanted us to carry
our that vision
he gave us marching

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Wallside's main products are fusion-
welded vinyl replacement windows, cus-
tom-made in its own factory and cus-
tom-installed in residences. The order
includes trim, screens and insulation,
with a 35-year warranty.
"A big reason for our success is that we
install only the windows we manufac-
ture, and each window replacement is
treated as a custom job," said Stanford.
"Our reputation for service and qualir,
does the rest helping to increase our
sales by about 15 percent each year."

Word-Of-Mouth

Wallside spends millions of dollars each

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Jewish-owned firms dominate the local
window replacement market,.
Besides Wallside, two major firms are
hanson's Windows and Siding of Fraser
and Weathergard \Window & Door
Factory of Oak Park.
Unlike Wallside, hanson's buys cus-
tom-made windows for customers
instead of manufacturing them. Brian
Elias, 36, of Waterford, co-owns the
firm with his brother, Darrin, 35, of
Farmington Hills.
Using a lower-case "h" for hanson's in
its advertising was the idea of an ad
agency's graphic designer, and it stuck,
says Brian.
"We don't think maintaining our
own manufacturing fad* is feasible
because the technology changes too fast
in toda-ys high-tech world and it's diffi-
cult and expensive to keep up with it,"
he said. "We use several suppliers and
we're able to sell and install abou s
50,000 windows yearly, plus vinyl sid-
ing.
"Our biggest challenge is just keep-
ing those customers satisfied. We offer
a money-back guarantee, so you are
bound to be successful or go broke
depending on how you run your busi-
ness."
The company does S50 million in
annual sales in Michigan, plus another
$3 million a year at a Toledo location.
Future branches are planned for
Lansing, Chicago and Ft. Wayne, Ind.
The brothers were strongly encour-
aged by their father, Hanley; to get
into a home improvement business of
some kind — although he was in the
restaurant business. They honored
their father by naming the window
business after him — hanson's„.
"Hanlev's sons." Hanley was able to

see the business flourish before he
died of a heart attack at age 49 in
1992.
The company advertises on TV,
radio and in the Yellow Pages and does
some referral business, but not as
extensive as Wallside. After leads come
in, they are given to 65 salespeople
who contact customers, then turn the
work over to 100 installers.
Weathergard is owned by an Israeli
family ... Albert Ben-Ezra, 56, presi-
dent, who lives in West Bloomfield; his
son, Tobey, 29, vice president of sales
and manufacturing, of West
Bloomfield, and a daughter, Els-y
Baron, 36, marketing manager, of
Okemos.
- Albert's wife, Esther, supports the
busy family by delivering home-cooked
lunches to its West Eight Mile Road
location.
The family came to the United States
in 1978, operated the business in a
Detroit building, and moved six years
ago to the 50,000-square-foot Oak
Park facility. Weathergard makes its
own windows with 15 employees. The
company produces and sells about 200
windows daily for 20-30 residences.
Like Wallside and hanson's,
Weathergard uses independent sales-
people and installers and a variety of
glass and vinyl suppliers.
Weathergard has TV and Yellow
Page ads and pays referral fees on a
more modest basis than Wallside,
relying more on free word-of-
mouth advertising. "If you take
care of the customer, the referrals
will come in," Tobey explained.
"We also obtain a lot of business in
the Jewish community because of
our Israeli background."