The Glass Association of North America’s (GANA) Building Envelope Contractors Conference (BEC) began its educational program this morning with a presentation by Serge Martin of AGC Glass Company. In an informative and fact-filled presentation, Martin took some issue with the infamous Wall Street Journal article of a few months ago that predicted a glass shortage. Here are my top five take-aways from his presentation: Clear is less: Clear glass is now approximately 55 percent of all glass manufactured, down significantly from more than 77 percent just a few years ago. Residential dominates, but only in tonnage. Manufacturers are about 5 percent of the chain. There’s always glass somewhere. Any shortage… Read More »
I will admit it. Usually, I think I know what to do. That is, even if I don’t know exactly what to do, I have a general idea of the direction in which to go. But not this time. I have no idea which way to go. This time I am stumped. So I am turning to you and I am going to do whatever you say. Here’s the issue. It’s a presidential election year, and this year, politics and the glass industry collide as they never have before. In fact, we have found at least three stories, and candidates, that have glass-industry ties. We have done some write-ups and… Read More »
We are putting the finishing touches on the USGlass Contract Glazing Issue, which goes to press this week. The February issue includes our list of top contract glaziers in the country. Along with the largest sales volumes, we track a number of other metrics, as well, and there’s one we are adding this year that is truly eye-opening. When you see the issue, you’ll notice we also track number of locations, employees and length of time in business. And every other year, we include the results of our massive contract glazier survey. We have tracked the top-20 companies for years. This past year, we have expanded the list to track… Read More »
