To me there’s one trend that is dominating our industry and
it’s probably not the one that you think it is.
It’s a product line that fabricators are seeing as a great path to
bottom line success. What is it? Well it’s probably not the one you
think. That would be something involved
with energy efficiency. And that trend
is major and constantly growing.
Obviously we covered in this space and throughout the media the utter
importance of our industry and energy improving products. But right now that’s not the product segment
that is seemingly growing at insane clip.
The hot mover is actually decorative glazing. One look into the excellent current issue of
Glass Magazine tells the story. In the
special “Products” section that the top glass fabricators in North America are
offering, 13 of the 22 profiles are decorative related with only 3 being
related to energy. Decorative glass is
actually a product line that allows fabricators to easily diversify their
business and help their bottom line. Add in smart suppliers (both from the
paints and machinery side) and the entry into that world is not daunting at
all. Now that said do I wish that the
pages of Glass Magazine were filled with new energy related and innovative
products? Sure…. And I believe they
exist but they’re not as sexy from a promotional side as decorative and the
supply chain from the energy side is not as streamlined into the fabricator
like the decorative suppliers are. Overall for me I had been involved in
decorative before it became hip, so it’s pretty amazing to see how’s absolutely
taken off.
Elsewhere…
-- By the way the rest of that Glass Magazine issue was
spectacular. Cover to cover; the content
and layout was top of the line- as always.
And as I am known to do, I studied the ads in there and props to DFI for
their very creative bridge ad. It’s
memorable and different… and for many of us makes us feel like we’re all in
this adventure together!
-- Last week I talked about the BEC Technical meeting- this
week, just a quick note on the overall conference scheduled for next month. A very strong agenda is in place, kudos to
the excellent Jon Kimberlain of Dow Corning and his committee that put it
together. From a glazier prospective,
you just need to look at the afternoon session of day 1 and see the value in
pieces on sealing, installation equipment, OSHA, codes and more. Then day 2 features the celebrity talk with
this year being former Philly Eagles QB and current ESPN analyst Ron
Jaworski. “Jaws” should be fun since he
brings a boatload of energy to every thing he does.
-- One of the former celeb keynotes at BEC was Mike Eurizone,
the captain of the US Olympic hockey team in 1980. He mentioned in his presentation, that if his
game winning shot went just one inch to the left, he’d be painting bridges in
Boston now and not speaking to a bunch of glass people. Well I thought of him when the US Women’s
hockey team missed out on a gold medal by an inch when their empty net attempt
hit the post. Heartbreaking for
them. And yes, since both the US Men and
US Women both lost to Canada, I will be singing “O Canada” in public, and on
video in the coming months. Congrats to
all of my friends up north on the wins!
-- One of those friends is Rich Porayko who picked up a
fantastic interim gig this past week in being named as head of the Canadian
Glass Association. Rich is a class act and excellent man and the CGA tapped him
to guide them through the process of finding a permanent Executive
Director. I am confident Rich will do a
great job for that organization and be a major asset to the new management that
comes in. Plus I am jealous… I mean he’s
running an organization for the entire country!
That’s just awesome. Remember us
little folk eh Rich?
LINKS of the WEEK
-- There’s a clown shortage… oh no what will we do!!
-- Great post on new Olympic events if it keeps snowing this
winter
-- I’m struggling to find words here; other than I think I’ll
be boycotting McDonalds if this is the way they treat an employee of 8
years! Not to mention what she did for
the firefighters in her town. Unreal.
VIDEO of the WEEK
On this video you have to wait 20 seconds or so for the
payoff… its raw video from the popular “Kiss Cams” that they do at the various
sporting events. This guy came prepared….
And this video now has more than 10 million views! Amazing!
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