What's Next?

Kawneer is one of those legacy brands in our space so when their parent company was sold recently it did send some waves through the industry.  There had been a ton of talk of Kawneer itself being sold (last year) but that got pulled back.  So though what happens next?   With Kawneer in a new setting could that mean another sale/spin-off effort is coming or do the new owners go for critical mass and start adding on. That is the nagging question for the future.  For the present the question is “what changes?” – does anything happen there that changes the approach that Kawneer takes?  Time will tell but Kawneer is loaded with some of the best talent in our space- my guy Henry Taylor is incredible as are folks like Sneh Kumar, Chris Giovannielli and many more.  So hopefully the new owners will support the good and be active in supporting and promoting our space. We shall see as a truly a new era is upon us.

 

Elsewhere…

 

--  The FIT show is happening this week in the UK and our guy- The GlassNerd, NGA’s Andrew Haring will be there.  I can’t wait for the content coming back from him and also whatever he is able to learn and share so we can keep advancing our industry!

 

--  I am very excited to soon be back in the great state of Texas with a presentation at the Houston Area Glass Association monthly luncheon.  That all happens on June 1, and if you are in the area, please join us.  I’ll be talking about forecasts and trends and I look forward to chopping it up with everyone there!!

 

--  Big congrats to the brilliant Jennifer Lang and the team at Minneapolis Glass.  If you caught my podcast with Jennifer back in November of last year, she gave the scoop that they were moving into new HQ and in the last few weeks, ground was broken on the new facility.  Very exciting to see this awesome company move forward!  Congrats! 

 

--  And one more set of props… The California Glass Association continues to make some positive in-roads.  They had an event this past week with the super folks at Frameless Hardware Company (FHC) and from what I was told the energy was off the charts.   So happy for Kristie Rehberger, Nathan Seaman, and Adam Posik for taking yet another great step in building this organization out and of course many thanks to the fine folks at FHC for hosting! 

 

--  I have been super late on this one… the return to our side of the industry by Jay Phillips.  I actually got a heads up right when Jay started (before the PR’s came out) and normally I jump on it and put out on here but this one got lost in shuffle.  Jay is back, now as CRO at Luxwall- a very interesting company that will be very disruptive (in a positive way) in our space. (Add them in the mix for legit players in the VIG space)  Jay is held in high regard by many and I have been a fan of his for years- he did great work with the BEC division and support of the industry- which I assume will pick back up again now that he’s back.  Congrats to Jay and welcome home!

 

--  Last this week… I did see the BlackBerry movie and I thought it was very well done and interesting.  It did veer from the book more than I like and it did leave out two HUGE moments in the whole Blackberry vs iPhone moment that were gamechangers.  But I guess I can’t get it all… still this was a good flick and one that made you remember those pre-phone/android days and how connected you were (at least I was) to the Blackberry.  And I was a BBOB guy- “BlackBerry on Belt” and that familiar buzz that happened when e-mails or texts came through were ingrained in my muscle memory so deeply that it took a while from when I switched to an iPhone for them to go away!

 

LINKS of the WEEK

A beer powered motorcycle!

 

A slingshot to the rescue

 

A wild story about parents changing the birthday of their kid- to avoid the holidays

 

PROJECT of the WEEK

Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center (ARTIC) gets the spotlight.  This is the project that the always excellent Matt Kamper of Woodbridge Glass talked about at BEC and had the audience on the edge of their seats.  It is so amazing, and the backstory was so cool and intense.  Here’s a link to the write up on it. Check it out and kudos to Matt and the entire team at Woodbridge for pulling this one off!!