Eight years ago, Joe Altieri was in his Plum garage trying to perfect a new, flexible, easy-to-install window screen.
Today he is the owner of FlexScreen, a multimillion- dollar Murrysville company that earned an investment from “Shark Tank” host Lori Greiner.
It opened its seventh manufacturing facility last June in New Hampshire.
And recently, Altieri was presented with a 2023 BIG Innovations Award from the Business Intelligence Group.
The award is specifically for FlexScreen’s establishment of an automated manufacturing line. Created through a collaboration with the Erdman Automation Corp., it can be licensed to other companies in order to produce their own FlexScreen products.
“We had to invest in automation early on in order to make our customized screen sizes,” Altieri said. “The big change for us is that now window manufacturers can put this line on their floor and essentially pay us a royalty to license the technology.”
The investment allows companies to make FlexScreen products at a lower cost than ordering them or making screens the traditional way.
In fact, while Altieri is still waiting for the automated line to be installed at his flagship facility in Murrysville, several of them have already been ordered by other companies.
On FlexScreen’s end, the automated line means it’s no longer necessary to devote 40,000 square feet to a new manufacturing facility — it can now fit into a building of about 15,000 square feet. It also allows a new operation to get off the ground more quickly.
“When we opened the New Hampshire plant, it took us six months from signing the lease to get it up and running,” Altieri said. “With this new line, a new facility can be up and running in six weeks.”
FlexScreen products are available at Home Depot, and Altieri said he expects them to be at Lowes home improvement stores by the spring.
“I give all the credit to my team,” he said. “It’s really easy to walk away from a new project and say, ‘Well, we tried.’ But we pushed through some roadblocks, and this new piece of equipment is going to change not just our company, but the industry.”
Earning a BIG Innovation Award puts FlexScreen in the same company as corporate giants such as Pepsi, Hewlett- Packard and Anheuser- Busch.
“I’m humbled by it,” Altieri said. “This was in my garage eight years ago, and now we’re winning awards that Dell Computer is winning. I get a little choked up by it.
“It’s really a dream come true.”
Patrick Varine is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Patrick by email at pvarine@triblive.com or via Twitter .
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