[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 104 (Wednesday, July 14, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Page S5847]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      RECOGNIZING MATHEWS BROTHERS

 Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, today I recognize one of the oldest 
continually operating businesses in my home State of Maine that has 
been truly successful at adapting to the changing times. Mathews 
Brothers has been manufacturing high quality windows and doors in the 
coastal town of Belfast for over 156 years, showing that resilience, 
innovation, and hard work can overcome even the worst economic 
downturns in American history. Currently employing more than 120 
individuals, Mathews Brothers provides a prime example of how small 
businesses can weather economic downturns to emerge stronger time after 
time.
  Mathews Brothers was founded in 1854 as a sawmill and millworks 
company by brothers Noah Merrill Mathews and Spencer Walcott Mathews. 
Throughout the years, the firm has set out to add a variety of 
different products to its repertoire, from blinds and shutters, to 
coffins and spiral staircases. Today, the company uses state-of-the-art 
equipment and materials to produce traditional wood, vinyl and 
contemporary composite windows and doors out of its three manufacturing 
plants in Belfast, Rockland, and Bangor.
  As continual innovators, Mathews Brothers launched Dream Kitchen 
Studio in 2008 as a separate division providing windows, doors, and 
kitchens to businesses, homeowners, and contractors throughout the 
Midcoast region of Maine. Indeed, the company has been breaking 
barriers and achieving a host of accomplishments from its inception, 
including being the largest woman-owned business in Maine at the start 
of the 20th century, as well as building the Jennie Flood Kreger, the 
largest and only 5-masted schooner ever built in Belfast.
  In recent years, Mathews Brothers has sought to improve its business 
model by cutting costs while maintaining quality. Toward this end, they 
recently completed a two month train-the-trainer lean manufacturing 
initiative with the Maine Manufacturing Extension Partnership that 
instructed 116 employees and helped save the company at least $75,000. 
In addition to this critical project, the company has sought to expand 
into overseas markets to sell its products, including participation in 
trade missions to Brazil, Korea, and Japan in the past several years.
  Furthermore, Mathews Brothers maintains a strong commitment to our 
environment, as it recycles 100 percent of its scrap glass, vinyl, 
metal, paper, and cardboard from the manufacturing process. The company 
also uses a recycling glass washer, helping it save 67,000 gallons per 
month in water consumption. Leftover sawdust is sent to local farms for 
use as stall bedding, while scrap wood is sold off as kindling or 
firewood. The firm takes its role as steward of the land seriously 
through its membership in the Maine Chapter of the U.S. Green Building 
Council and the Maine Forest Products Council.
  Mathews Brothers has also shown a continued commitment to its local 
community and actively encourages their employees to engage in 
community service activities. This commitment originated over a century 
ago in 1904 with then-President Orlando Frost's commitment to help 
start up the Waldo County General Hospital. Their employees still 
volunteer in the oncology department and eagerly participate in the 
hospital's annual fall oncology walk. Mathews Brothers' commitment to 
community service was on display again in 2007 when the company raised 
over $7,000 to purchase phone cards for soldiers from Maine deployed in 
Iraq.
  Not surprisingly, Mathews Brothers has earned numerous awards for 
manufacturing and customer service excellence. The firm was recently 
awarded the Maine Manufacturing Extension Partnership's Manufacturing 
Excellence Award in June 2010. The award recognizes the company's 
success in achieving world-class manufacturing status and 
implementation of best manufacturing practices to stay ahead of the 
competition, all while maintaining a commitment to loyally serving its 
customers and assisting the community at large. The company has also 
received the Governor's Award for Business Excellence in 1994, and was 
chosen as the Belfast Area Chamber of Commerce's Business of the Year 
in 2007, among other distinctions.
  While rising to the top of its field over the past century and a 
half, Mathews Brothers has never forgotten the community that helped it 
get there. Its consistent and enthusiastic endeavors to serve the 
community and its customers have not gone unnoticed, and I praise them 
for their efforts to modernize in the face of globalization, a process 
which has not been kind to American manufacturers. I thank everyone at 
Mathews Brothers for their philanthropic efforts and tremendous 
perseverance, and offer my best wishes for another 150 years of 
success.

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