In 2006, Halcyon Shades was owned by a global conglomerate and was manufacturing its products in Virginia.  The decision was made to move the operation to Mexico in order to take advantage of lower wage rates.  Halcyon relocated in Puebla, Mexico, but it did not take long to realize that this was a mistake.  While the workers were outstanding, freight costs for materials in and products out of Mexico made the operation unprofitable and unmanageable.  Halcyon's parent company sought to shut it down.

In 2008, Habitata Building Products was founded with little more than a couple of old trucks and a customer list.  Six months after its start-up,  one of the founders of Habitata learned that Halcyon Shades might be for sale.  Despite the stock market crash in September 2008, Habitata was able to locate investment funds to buy Halcyon Shades, a business larger than its own.  Within a single month, Habitata's partners located an old grocery store in an urban renewal zone, fitted it out as a shade factory, hired  workers and trained them and moved all of Halcyon's equipment and materials 4,000 miles north from Mexico to St. Louis.   In the process the shipped every order to Lowe's and Home Depot customers across the country as well as to its network of dealers.   Since then, Habitata/Halcyon has improved quality 80%, reduced order-to-delivery times by half and set a new standard for customer service.

Habitata is an equal opportunity employer and has hired mentally disabled employees, veterans, newly released felons and chronically unemployed people from the St. Louis area as a matter of ordinary hiring practice.  In its young life, it has already paid millions of dollars in wages and taken the Halcyon brand to new heights. 

And we are just getting warmed up.

In October, 2009 Habitat/Halcyon was presented with a Business of the Year award from the Mayor Francis Slay on behalf of the City of St. Louis.  While we certainly appreciate being acknowledged, we would do what we do even if nobody noticed.

They called it McRee Town and it was one of the worst neighborhoods in the St. Louis metro area.  Crime was rampant and the buildings were vacant or falling down.  The City of St. Louis basically flattened the neighborhood and started over.  It is now called Botanical Heights and it is a model of urban renewal.   Halcyon Shades chose to put its manufacturing facility in this neighborhood because it wanted to make a difference.  It repurposed an empty old grocery store and turned it into a factory, storage facility and offices.  We are proud to be a part of this renaissance.

We love our city, our neighborhood and the entire community of investors, managers, employees that makes Halcyon Shades possible.  At Halcyon Shades we think that companies can do more than make money.  They can be a good neighbor and a community resource in troubled times and prosperity.  

At Halcyon Shades we understand that it takes a village to make a shade.