The February issue of USGlass magazine is typically one of my favorites. Although we cover the contract glazing industry in depth in each issue, our February focus is on the companies that make up this industry segment.

Whether they are relative newcomers or have been around forever, they all live in one of the riskiest segments of the glass industry and have my unfailing respect because they not only survive but thrive there. We typically identify the change in market size—the relative size of the pie compared to the previous one—in this issue. While the metrics we use here track the top forty companies over time, they provide a good relative view of the expansion or contraction in the industry.

Below is a look at the value of projects for the top 20 and top 40 contract glazing companies over the past 14 years.

It’s interesting to see what a hit the top 20 took during COVID, how quickly the next 20 picked up that volume, and now both segments have leveled out. Over the past 14 years, the market size has increased by 2%, but the top 20’s market share has increased by 9%. I watch this distribution carefully because it helps measure the pressure on the rest of the market beyond the top 20.

As bigger projects increasingly move into the “dedicated design-build” arena, the ability for the smaller glazing contractors to attract and retain larger jobs is more at risk.