Where else can you go and hear people talk about perimeter sheets, honor five industry legends, watch an association president get his hair shaved off, listen to a beautiful serenade, and leave while getting pelted with a bunch of used socks? Nowhere, except the Colorado Glazing Contractors Association’s (CGCA) 30th-anniversary dinner and Industry Legends awards ceremony. The dinner was held as a kick-off to Glass Expo Rocky Mountain™ ’23 last week and honored its “Industry Legends”—Carle Abernathy, Les Law, Rick Ryan, Lou Sigman and Joel Watson—with accolades and awards. A different delivery person presented each award, all of whom bore an uncanny resemblance to CGCA executive director Rebecca Graves. (You… Read More »
Were my dad still alive, yesterday would have been his 90th birthday. Though he passed away 13 years ago the day before his birthday, his lessons still teach me things every day. His favorite saying was “just do your best,” though he’d always followed it with a caveat. “If you are sure — really sure — you have done your best, then you should be satisfied,” he’d say. “Because you could not have done any better.” So, you can see why I often focus on that question. Did I do the best I could? If so, I should be at peace. And if not, I need to fix that for… Read More »
“So, what’s it like to be a woman in the glass industry?” My actual answer is that I don’t know. I’ve never been anything else. “What’s it like to be a woman in the glass industry now, compared to years ago?” Well, that one I can answer. You might know that I started in this industry barely out of my teens and have had the privilege of serving it for 40 years since. In the beginning, whether I was in a room of 50 or 500, I was almost always the only one lacking a Y chromosome. It felt weird for a while, and then it just felt normal. Math… Read More »
When you make your living reporting, as I often do, you strive to provide perfect descriptions and compelling stories. When you can do so in paragraphs, you feel good. When you do so in sentences, you feel pretty accomplished. And you hit the etymological jackpot when you find a perfect one-word description. I might have found it for the Glassbuild America (GBA) show that took place late last month in Las Vegas. It was distinct from any GBA show that had come before it. It was unique in appearance, feel, and how people interacted with each other. Las Vegas was, in a word, different. First, the look of the event… Read More »
Most things don’t need to be seen to be believed, but seeing often provides a new or different viewpoint. Take, for example, this look at the top U.S. glazing contractors over the past ten years, as visualized by the research department at the parent company of USGlass magazine, Key Media & Research. I found not only the change in individual companies interesting, but the change in market size itself. See what you think.
The news earlier this week that Guardian Glass was raising prices on many of its product categories up to 40 percent was a stunner. But should it have been? I know, I know. I know what you are going to say. The Guardian of years past would not have done things this way—they wouldn’t have issued such a breath-taking letter. Except that’s precisely how they’ve been doing it for the past few decades. Long before our first online story about such increases in 2011, customers received price increase letters. The ten-day notice seems short, but I can’t imagine what length of time is “right” for such an increase. Please don’t… Read More »
Has the North American contract glazing industry recovered from COVID? A quick crunch of the numbers says it has. Overall, 2021 sales volume for top contract glaziers was up significantly over 2020. Here’s the aggregated sales volume for USGlass magazine’s top 50 contract glazing companies in 2020 vs. 2021: That’s a healthy 13.6 percent increase in sales volume. Now let’s take a look at where the pieces of that larger pie went: Source: USGlass magazine This means the top 10 contract glaziers increased their sales volume 9.6%. The top 25 increased their sales volume 12.8%. The “top ten” usually work off backlog committed years earlier. The next 15% do as… Read More »
It was a delight to be part of the Management Conference that the Texas Glass Association (TGA) held for its members on Friday, May 13, in Round Rock, Texas. (Glass TEXpo ‘21, which the association co-sponsored with USGlass magazine, was the first industry-wide event to be held post-COVID and we were all still wearing masks then, so it was nice to see—really see—full faces anew.) I enjoyed catching up with Felix Munson of Anchor-Ventana Glass, Kyle Sharp of Sharp Glass, who is serving as TGA president this year, Sam Hill of Oak Cliff Mirror and Glass, another backbone of the industry, and Kyle Lamb of Universal Glass, as well as… Read More »
Finding and retaining quality employees has always been one of the glass industry’s biggest challenges. It’s consistently been the number 1, 2 or 3 largest problem cited in every glazing study we’ve done over the years. The glass industry had this problem long before every other industry did. Now that every other industry has the same problem, it’s become worse than ever for the glass companies to find new and good employees. Glass installation competes against everything from convenience store employees ($20 an hour around here) to other building trades. Glass installation is physical work, often in unpleasant conditions. Even though they should, glaziers don’t get the respect that electricians… Read More »
It’s hard to believe we’re in the month of May already—the first third of the year has passed with lightning speed. April 2022 was one of the busiest and most memorable months our industry has seen in a long time. Consider all that’s happened in the past four weeks. The month began with the return of Glass Expo Northeast, April 6-7, on Long Island. I can’t tell you how wonderful it felt to see so many longtime friends and to welcome some new ones. It just felt “normal” to feel “normal” again. Here’s a look at each day of Glass Expo Northeast: here and here. Also taking place simultaneously was… Read More »
