NORTH VENICE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

PGT Innovations, Inc. (NYSE: PGTI), the nation’s leading manufacturer and supplier of residential impact-resistant windows and doors, offers its top engineers to join a statewide effort to assess post-storm building damage. A national expert in building codes and PGT Innovations Director of Product Management, Dean Ruark, and PGTI professional engineers Lynn Miller and Robert Beaird will contribute to a study led by the University of Florida to examine the impact of Hurricane Irma on buildings and infrastructure throughout the state.

The assessment, led by David O. Prevatt, Ph.D., PE, Civil & Coastal Engineering Dept., University of Florida, will rapidly collect data on the immediate post-storm condition of buildings before clean-up. The team will also identify specific areas in Florida for more extensive surveys of building damage. The analysis will identify weaknesses and strengths in the remaining structures. PGTI engineers will contribute data to the study and also examine the performance of PGT impact-resistant windows and doors in areas most affected by the storm.

“I’m eager to contribute to this important analysis. It’s essential to examine the damage on the ground to learn how buildings performed against a major Hurricane,” said Mr. Ruark. “The Florida Building Commission has already taken many vital steps to keep people and buildings safe from major storms. We expect to see that newer buildings performed well against Hurricane Irma which will affirm the need for strong building codes as well as strict code enforcement in places vulnerable to hurricanes.”

For the building industry, this research can help inform future design of more resilient buildings. For PGT Innovations, Mr. Ruark hopes to identify ways to invent safer, stronger and smarter impact-resistant windows and doors.

“PGT Innovations is dedicated to inventing, building, and delivering impact-resistant windows and doors to ensure families, homes, and businesses remain safe through severe weather events,” said Jeff Jackson, President of PGT Innovations.

Mr. Ruark is a Florida Registered Professional Engineer, and currently, serves on the American Architectural Manufacturer’s Association’s (AAMA) Code Action committee and is instrumental in developing code change proposals for the international codes as well as the Florida Building Codes to better protect buildings against natural disasters. He also serves as President of the AAMA Southeast Region.

About PGT Innovations

PGT Innovations, headquartered in North Venice, Florida, with approximately 2800 employees statewide, creates value through deep customer relationships, understanding the unstated needs of an industry, a drive to create the strongest, safest products on the market, and a commitment to always moving forward. The Company's trusted brands include CGI®, PGT® Custom Windows & Doors, and WinDoor®. PGT Innovations is the nation’s largest manufacturer of impact-resistant windows and doors, holds the leadership position in its primary market, and is part of the S&P SmallCap 400 Index. For additional information, visit www.pgtinnovations.com.

Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act

Statements in this news release regarding our business that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, such as “believe”, “expect”, “anticipate”, "will", and similar terminology. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, factors such as:

• The impact of Hurricane Irma on PGTI’s business, including the amount of its sales and profitability;
• The economy in the United States generally and in Florida, in particular, where the substantial portion of our sales are generated, and the impact that Hurricane Irma has had and may continue to have on that economy
• Raw material prices, especially aluminum and vinyl
• Transportation costs
• Our level of indebtedness
• Our dependence on our impact-resistant product lines
• Our ability to successfully integrate acquisitions, such as our acquisition of WinDoor®, Inc.
• Product liability and warranty claims
• Federal and state regulations,
• Our dependence on our manufacturing facilities; and
• Other risks discussed in our Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended January 2, 2016 and our subsequently filed quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, which are available from the SEC.

Statements in this release that are "forward-looking" include without limitation statements regarding: the level of demand expected for the Company's products in 2018 and beyond; the benefits that the transactions described herein are expected to have on the Company and its core areas of window and door manufacturing; the Company’s expectations regarding the impact of those transactions on its future capital expenditures, maintenance costs, EBITDA margins and other financial performance metrics; the amount of debt the Company anticipates it will be able to pay down as a result of consummating the transactions; and expectations regarding mitigating the challenges posed by a tight labor market in the Venice area. You should not place undue reliance on forward looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect the impact of subsequent events or circumstances, except as required by law.

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