Recapping 2015 Predictions

Happy New Year and welcome to 2016.  Should be a very interesting year in both our industry and world with so much happening, including a Presidential election that looks to be like nothing we’ve ever seen before.  But before we move forward it’s time to take a glance back at the predictions I made for 2016. 

Prediction: Instead of one big acquisition in our industry, I am predicting several smaller ones, maybe along the lines of 5 or 6 this year.  I do think one sale will be someone who no one expected would sell. 

Result: I was ½ right.  One sale no one would expect would surely be CRL to OldcastleBE.  But the level of smaller sales did not happen and surely the CRL one was bigger than big.

Prediction: The “Bird Safe” revolution for glass will grow with more and more architects starting to ask for it. 

Result: Nailed it.  It’s a growing area and thanks to products that launched in this segment from Walker Glass and Pleotint Suntuitive, that process will continue.

Prediction: With North America now loaded with more digital printers for glass than ever, 2015 will be the year where its usage in several industry segments takes off. 

Result: The term “take off” was not accurate, the usage grew and did it at a solid pace, but not as off the charts as I expected.  Still an area to monitor.

Prediction: At least 2 major companies return to participate heavily in GlassBuild America this fall.  With the show being a premier attraction, some companies who have skipped will realize they can’t miss it again.

Result: The show was incredible and the return of many impact companies and players to the floor and education was exciting.  From what I can see 2016 (in October this year, Las Vegas) will be even better.

Prediction: The glass shortage will have an effect but the transportation issues will be even worse, items that the industry will have to be very creative and proactive to deal with.

Result:  Getting trucks was a challenge and the companies who heeded the advice of being proactive and using communication had an easier time navigating a challenging landscape. These issues are not going away either.

Overall:  Not bad.  Better than my football predictions… I’ll have my 2016 predictions next week!

Elsewhere…

--  We lost a good industry person and good man over the holidays.  Tony Oliver passed away in December.  I worked with Tony at Arch and he was a tremendous man.  He was a sales guy but surely not the typical one.  Fun, unique, cool guy.  Condolences to his friends and family. 

--  I covered the Section 179 issue during the year and we got great news as 2015 ended.  The 179 deduction was officially raised to $500,000 and also made permanent.  This is tremendous news for business and for many in our industry who supported this effort, especially David Dillmeier of Dillmeier Enterprises who brought this to my attention.

--  I assume many of you may have flown somewhere during the holidays and then there’s the road warriors in our industry that fly a lot.  I think all of us can put together a list of best and worst airports… well recently such a list was created and I can agree with some of the worst…

Here’s the bottom 5:

  5- Northwest Regional Arkansas- Fayetteville, AR- I have never flown in and out of here- the only one on this list I hadn’t. 

  4- O’Hare- Chicago- Absolutely.  I try and avoid this airport with everything in my being.

  3- Dulles- Washington DC- You know I’ve never had an issue here.  Not a great airport but I think there’s many worse.  Hope I didn’t jinx myself.  I also may be biased since I love all the glass used here.

  2- LaGuardia- NYC- No question.  Old, nowhere to sit or eat, expensive, and every flight is late.

  1- Newark Liberty- Newark, NJ- This is absolutely the right call in saying it’s the worst.  Whether you are flying to or flying out of, your flight is never on time, half the place is usually out of order, and if you get stuck flying out of a terminal going through remodeling, enjoy that seat on the floor for 3 hours. 

In the end I’m stunned LAX is not on this list… same with Ft Lauderdale and Miami. 

In a few weeks I am going to do my own rankings of “best” airports and then put it out there to vote within the industry.  Curious to see what other opinions are.

LINKS of the WEEK

This guy deserves jail and hopefully the case doesn’t fall apart…

This seems too absurd to be real- student blows through 90K college fund and is beyond petulant about it.

Ok my many friends in Canada… this one is for/about you.  Headlines that could only happen in your amazingly great country.

VIDEO of the WEEK

So I saw Star Wars over the break and it was fantastic.  If you saw it and want to get into the depth of it with unanswered questions from the movie, check out this vieo.  If you have not seen, do not watch this- lots of spoilers…