Total Door Celebrates Grand Opening

Privately held commercial manufacturing business Total Door held its grand opening ribbon cutting at 6145 Delfield Drive in Waterford Township, MI, on October 12.

U.S. Rep. Gary Peters and U.S. Sen. Carl Levin joined a large group of officials who attended the opening ceremonies, including Oakland County executive L. Brooks Patterson; Leon Yulkowski, founder of Total Door; Christine Yulkowski, co-founder; Patricia Yulkowski, CEO of Total Door; Waterford Township supervisor Carl Solden; state Rep. Gail Haines; and Waterford treasurer Margaret Birch. After the ribbon cutting, attendees were treated to plant tours and served a light lunch and refreshments.

Total Door is the only door systems manufacturer in the world. During the past summer, the company moved its operations and 45 employees in phases from Pontiac, MI into the newly refurbished 63,000 sq ft Waterford facility, which is all on one floor. At the previous 75,000 sq ft facility that had been an old automobile plant, employees worked on multiple floors.

During a tour of the new facility, operations manager Stan Hubbell explained that ?Eighty percent of our material is recycled and we have reduced volatile organic compounds we use. Our door systems are also made in the U.S., whereas 80 percent of other doors are manufactured overseas.?

The new facility includes a full training center where customers can come and learn how to install the door systems, which are used in hospital, schools, government buildings, ?any place there is a swinging door that gets a lot of use,? noted Jacquie Fette, the strategic marketing manager of Total Door. The company also manufactures electrified door systems.

?We are succeeding in this challenging environment,? added Fette, ?because we do the work up front. That means users of our products don?t have to.?

The company?s history stretches back to the 1950s, when founders Leon and Christine Yulkowski created the first American mortise lock designed specifically for levers. Considered a revolutionary design, the lock is still widely used today. The Yulkowskis? first company, General Lock, grew until it was purchased by Schlage in 1972. After that, the Yulkowskis worked to create a new kind of door.

After the sale of General Lock, the Yulkowskis used their unique approach to create an entirely new kind of door. Instead of using a collection of separate parts from dozens of different manufacturers, the Yulkowskis looked at each door opening as a unified system. They designed custom components, all engineered to work together and factory installed. This strategy led to the creation of Total Door and the creation of an entirely new category of opening systems. Standard doors have three hinges, but Total Door systems feature a continuous connection.

In the beginning, Leon invented products and Christine ran the business. ?My father is still inventing,? smiled Patricia, who resides in Pontiac. Today, Total Door markets its complete door opening system through a select, nationwide network of independent distributors. Only factory-trained installers are authorized to install and service these systems. The distributors are supported by an excellent service department, as well as a team of regional managers. .?

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Total Door, 6145 Delfield Drive, Waterford, MI 48329, 800-852-6660, www.totaldoor.com .