Centra Cares
“For our staff, serving at NightShift creates compassion, better communication skills and better love for each other.”
Centra Windows clearly stands out
Centra Windows is a clear stand out in the window, door and siding industry. An employee-owned company, Centra maintains a unique approach of keeping everything in-house, from manufacturing, distributing and installing. Their consistent high-quality results started with the vision and hard work of John Tilstra, Founder and CEO.
When John arrived in BC from Ontario in 1980, as a carpenter he had to find his own work in a lean employment market. Carpentry led to siding and window installation in the early 1980s. He founded Centra Windows in 1982, with four employees. With energy-efficient windows hard to find, John began manufacturing. “I didn’t like what I saw in manufacturing and retail, and I wanted to have a higher-end product to sell, reasonably priced, to consumers,” says John. “So I decided to create a partnership and build a bigger company.”
An employee-owned company since 1996, today Centra Windows has over 300 employees and four locations across BC. The Centra team estimates, manufactures, installs and services Energy Star windows, doors, and siding. They work with general contracting remediation, developers and builders, and home replacement and restoration on upwards of 200 homes a month in BC.
Centra Windows’ excellence in their trade starts with caring for their workers. The employee-owned model nurtures pride in the company. And then the company’s charitable giving vehicle, Centra Cares Foundation, nurtures care for the communities in which they do business. Employees, along with the company, give six-figures a year to local causes and charitable organizations.
NightShift Street Ministries is honoured to be one of those community organizations. Not only has John and the Centra team given generous donations, they help hands-on with NightShift’s outreach to homeless and poverty-stricken people in Surrey. The third Tuesday of every month, a team of Centra employees gathers in the NightShift kitchen to cook a meal and then serve it to those in need on the street. “Through certain circumstances or bad choices or addictions, life is just unfortunate for them. Serving them gives you a little bit of care, and they become your friends, and real people,” shares John, who is also a NightShift Board Member. “For our staff, serving at NightShift creates compassion, better communication skills and better love for each other.”
Thank you Centra Windows, you truly care!
