Huge Retirement

The big news from the industry this week was the announced planned retirement of Apogee CEO Joe Puishys.  I have been a huge fan of Joe’s from the first time I heard him speak at BEC and believe he is an excellent leader and representative of our industry.  So the fact he is retiring (scheduled for February 2021) will surely leave a mark.  I liked that Joe “got it” with regards to the way the industry worked and what it needed to be, and we need more people of his mindset- not less.  Obviously, I am always happy for those lucky enough to retire, but I am surely bummed that he’s stepping away.  As for his replacement, that has not been announced yet, but those are some serious shoes to fill.  I am excited and curious to see who comes away in that role though and hope they stand up for our world and support events like BEC like Joe did.  In any case we’ll be surely watching this one closely, and happy trails Joe!

 

Elsewhere…

 

--  What a week at GlassBuild Connect. So many good things went on… a few highlights from me:

 

--  The NACC session with Jeff Dalaba and Ben Beeler on quality management was incredible.  One solid hour of reasons WHY you want your glazing operation to be a part of a system like NACC and the difference it could make.  Especially with tougher times possibly ahead, any mistake could be a killer.  Get ahead of it now.

 

--  The Veka Town Hall and Plant Tour was as great as I hoped and expected.  The tour was fun and interesting, and the Town Hall featured such a wide range of questions, it really did not matter that I wasn’t a core customer for them.  They handled things like work from home, the economy etc. Enjoyable, interesting session.

 

--  By the way these are available ON DEMAND at the GlassBuild.com site- so sometime before the month ends, get there check them out and also all of the products and exhibitors.

 

--  Thanks to the Scavenger Hunt Contest sponsors from this week- C.R. Laurence, Armor Guard, Lite Sentry, and Amesbury Truth- Appreciate you all stepping up and supporting this event.  So many have been “all in” with GlassBuild and that is beyond wonderful and appreciated.

 

--  This week again a lot of “must see” but big key is Thursday my guy Chris Phillips will go Live with his Shower Door installation tips and tricks.  So that is one to absolutely block out on your schedule.

 

Go to GlassBuild.com to see the schedule and check it all out!

 

--  While we all wait for the other economic shoe to fall, the recent numbers coming out continue  to be positive.  The latest Dodge Momentum Index was up and non-residential starts were up 16%.  That is all stuff in the positive column.  Later this week the next Architectural Billings Index is due out and I am expecting it to either stay at 40 (where it’s been for 2 straight months) or drop a bit.  I also think design contracts will drop into the 30’s from 44 in the last report.  As always, I hope I am wrong and will gladly eat the crow if so!

 

--  Last this week… so I watched a little football this past weekend and I am amazed at how dominant the commercials are from the insurance side of the world.  Geico, Progressive, Liberty, and State Farm are in almost every commercial block.  And to their credit their creative is pretty good too.  So what’s your favorite?  I’m going with Flo from Progressive and all the spots they do… but this is a close battle overall… on social media I’ll set up a poll on this…

 

LINKS of the WEEK

 

--  Our products are protective in so many ways- like being used to fend off knife wielding crooks

 

--  And our products are in video games and when things go wrong I guess we have virtual glaziers/window jobbers now?

 

--  Wrong sign in a city in Florida.  My gosh.  And I know this spot too…

 

PROJECT of the WEEK

 

This is Bobby Summers Arena in Fate, Texas… It is a good, sharp, solid job glazed by Ennis Glass.  I had the honor of working with the co-owner of Ennis, Michael Vasquez in a past life and he is a tremendous guy loaded with talent.  So when I saw this project come across my feed- I had to jump in and give props.  Plus Michael is that very rare Steeler fan down in the heart of Texas- so I admire him for that because that can’t be easy either!  Anyway, nice work Michael and Ennis team- keep it up!  (and feel free to post on the LinkedIn post of this who the glass and metal came from!)