Last month, Andersen Corporation, a leading manufacturer of windows and doors, sued automation company ATS Corporation, for allegedly failing to deliver equipment for a multi-million dollar factory project at its Iowa subsidiary, Eagle Window and Door Manufacturing, Inc.
Andersen claims it poured millions into the facility to increase production of its high-end E-Series windows for the custom homebuilding market.
Andersen claimed ATS missed deadlines, demanded millions in additional payments, and halted work on the project altogether, citing “poor project management” that made the equipment 860 days late.
Well, late last week, ATS filed an answer and counterclaim as well as a motion to dismiss against Andersen Corporation and Eagle Window and Door.
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Matt Robinson, director of corporate affairs and communication at ATS reached out to Industrial Equipment News (IEN) to shed a little more light on the situation.
Being a publicly traded company working with confidential customer information, ATS is limited in what it can share, but now that the company has presented its positions in court, it can share a few more details.
ATS not only seeks to dismiss Andersen’s case, but the automation company claims damages ATS Ohio suffered as a result of Andersen and Eagle’s breach of the project agreement.
Robinson said ATS Ohio began and completed five projects for Andersen-owned facilities between 2020 and the day they sued ATS over the E-Series project.
According to Robinson, during the E-Series window automated assembly project, it became evident to ATS Ohio that Eagle did not intend to compensate ATS for the costs borne by ATS to follow Eagle’s instructions to deviate from ATS Ohio's standard practices and the project specifications.
ATS said it has provided multiple proposals to Andersen and Eagle in an effort to align Eagle’s instructions with the contract requirements.
“While we intend to overcome this matter in the courts, and not through the media, I did want to make sure that you were provided additional perspective and context on this matter,” Robinson said.
Andersen sued ATS for breach of contract, and said that the delay has resulted in unspecific financial damages and postponed the launch of its new E-Series product.
IEN reached out to Andersen and ATS, but the companies did not immediately respond to our requests for comment.
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