East Side Glass Company Celebrating 70 Years in Business

(KNSI) — A family-owned and operated commercial and residential glass company in St. Cloud is celebrating 70 years of business.

According to family legend, Jim Ferkinhoff started East Side Glass Company on March 22nd, 1953, the same day his son Dave was born.

The business has installed glass in many storefronts along St. Germain Street, including some of the city’s most iconic buildings like US Bank, the St. Cloud Police Department, the River’s Edge Convention Center and the food court at Crossroads Center mall.

Siblings Luke Ferkinhoff, Laura Hutt and Andy Ferkinhoff are third-generation owners. Each has their role, with Luke serving as president, Andy as the chief operating officer, and Laura as chief financial officer. The three have controlled the company for the last five years, with Luke telling KNSI News that all three grew up in the family business learning from their older members. “There is a lot of years of experience past down. All that knowledge goes down from grandpa or dad to some of our people. We’ve had a project manager that was here 40 years.”

Andy says they’ve been very blessed and fortunate. “What a milestone. Third generations are always tough. But we’re on the same team. And I think as long as we can stay focused, the sky’s the limit.”

Laura says she feared the pandemic would be a huge challenge, but it presented a new opportunity for the company. “We thought it would be COVID. And we were scared at first and then, everybody stayed home, and everybody started remodeling. The residential side just blew up.”

She says the company’s residential business has nearly doubled in the last ten years. Contractors buy a lot of shower doors for homes, and the company does window repairs and glass replacements. East Side Glass evolved from building basic non-insulated storefronts to complete commercial installations with all aluminum framing, which is the company’s bread and butter.

The company says that 60% of its clients are in commercial construction, and the rest comes from repairs, custom work or residential homes.

East Side Glass is located at 305 Franklin Avenue Northeast in St. Cloud.

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