Window of opportunity opens for PGT; The company hires workers as a stricter state building code translates into sales.(BUSINESS)

Byline: ALEXANDER COOLIDGE alexander.coolidge@heraldtribune.com

VENICE -- Just as Florida's sweeping new building code is expanding the market for its key window product line, PGT Industries is looking to hire 100 new workers.

The company, Sarasota County's largest manufacturer, said roughly 60 percent of its top-selling product, the WinGuard line of impact-resistant windows and doors, was sold last year in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.

Those counties enacted tougher building standards after Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

PGT officials say they expect increased sales from the new standards imposed throughout the rest of the state …