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This article was published 6/2/2019 (594 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Duraco Window Industries Ltd. seems to have gone out of business, leaving angry customers with unfinished work and worthless "lifetime" warranties and more than $1 million in back rent and defaulted loans owing.

Among those creditors is the federal government, by way of the Business Development Bank of Canada, which is owed more than $740,000.

The shop in the Inkster Industrial Park looks abandoned with a couple of trucks piled high with snow in the lot along with seven Duraco-branded trailers.

The mid-sized residential replacement window company had a well-known name brand for many years but claims against the company started to materialize in the second half of 2018 and by December 6 it had defaulted on a number of loans from the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC).

Several customers have complained that work that has been paid for has not been completed. The company also promised a life-time guarantee on its work.

The 40-year old business was acquired by Matthew Guberman in 2004 and in 2008 it acquired Storm-Tite windows, another long-standing Winnipeg business.

Repeated calls and messages to Guberman to explain what is going on with the business have not been returned.

In mid-January, BDC filed two formal claims against Duraco, Guberman and two numbered companies that Guberman was the director and officer of totalling $740,941 on loans dating back to 2007.

In addition to a number of small claims, the Workers Compensation Board has filed a certificate of judgment against the company for $22,916.94 and the Winnipeg Goldeyes Baseball Club Inc. has a claim for $31,544.12 on unpaid advertising bills.

There is also a notice on the plant door from the building landlord stating that the lease was terminated and that the company owes $465,000 in back rent.

No official bankruptcy or receivership filing has yet to surface.

According to the BDC claim, Guberman has personally guaranteed the loans. His Park Boulevard West home is on the market for $1.85 million.

One disgruntled customer, Mike Nadwidny, said just days before Christmas Duraco called to say his windows were ready and Duraco wanted to come and do the installation even though a previous arrangement had been made to do the work in February.

Nadwidny said he was particularly upset that he allowed Guberman to convince him to make an additional $4,000 deposit a couple of days before Christmas with a promise to complete the significant amount of the work still left undone in the days after Christmas. Even though he called many times Nadwidny has had no further communication with the company since Dec. 22.

The Winnipeg window market is particularly competitive which is another reason Nadwidny is so upset.

"I didn't ask for a discount and I didn't go for any Kijiji shenanigans," he said. "I wanted steak. I paid for steak but they they did not deliver steak."

Stephen Segal, president of Polar Windows, said it is always sad to see a competitor exit the market for whatever the reason.

"My understanding is that they are not currently open. Will they re-open? I do not know," Segal said. "It is a competitive industry with some great competitors. We would classify Duraco as a very good competitor. One of the things that can impact the window and door industry is seasonality."

He said he had no knowledge as to what happened to Duraco's business but wondered if seasonality has something to do with it.

It may be noteworthy that Duraco and Guberman entered into a $1.35 million loan agreement with BDC in December 2007, according to the court filing. About a year later the Manitoba economy was officially in recession.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca