Above: Employees at the factory of Tvitec | Cricursa in Cubillos de Sil in León-Spain prepare to handle a glass lite over 29 feet in length. The suction cups on the glass handling equipment can move pieces weighing more than 5 tons. Photo courtsey of Roberto Arias, Tvitec | Cricursa.
Gin Benner of AGNORA inspects glass on the insulating glass line. Photo by Adam Mitchell.
Leading glass fabricators report a year of solid investment and innovation, as well as strong sales. Companies also report slower growth, likely due to construction-wide issues with inflation, project delays and resulting cost increases.
Merger and acquisition activity early in 2024 suggests that the construction landscape will continue to change and consolidate. In February, Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope acquired Midwest Glass Fabricators, headquartered in Highland, Michigan. In March, Trulite Glass & Aluminum Solutions finalized the acquisition and merger of American Insulated Glass. Additionally, Gardner Glass Products was acquired by a private equity firm, Ironbridge, which also owns Walker Glass Co.
Challenges with raw glass sourcing did appear to ease in 2023, but hurdles remain, even for the country’s top fabricators. “The cost of domestic float glass has increased significantly, and that poses pricing and competitive bid challenges,” says Adam Shearer, president and partner, Imagic Glass. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, material pricing (measured through the Producer Price Index) for glass and glass products increased 4.6% during 2023, and was up 23% compared to pre-pandemic.
Though attendant challenges like supply chain seem to have eased, paused projects threaten a negative cascading effect on the industry. “Many projects have been delayed, which has an impact on supply chain management,” says Carey Mobius, president and CEO, Garibaldi Glass Industries. “Staffing resources have been difficult to maintain, and as a result, there has been instability in overall manufacturing.”
Top Glass Fabricators Report
Scroll to view the whole report or jump to these sections:
The List | Industry ranking of leading fabricators who supply the North American market
5%
Procuring raw glass a major pain point, compared to 30% in 2022
Products
The glass industry continues to expand its innovative products. Fabricator respondents reported increased production of several high-performance glass types, especially bird-friendly glazing. A majority, 72%, of respondents say they fabricated bird-friendly glass in 2023, a year-over-year increase of six percentage points; 68% of respondents also said they felt bird-friendly glass was a popular design trend. This is unsurprising given the amount of new codes and legislation across the country that are pushing for bird-friendly building solutions.
Security and impact-rated glass, as well as energy-efficient products, were close seconds in popularity this last year; 67% of respondents said security glass was a trend, and 60% named energy-efficient glass.
Regarding glass sizes, 86% of respondents expect sizes to continue to grow in 2024, up seven points from last year. Despite this, the number of companies that report making jumbo glass is down a few percentage points for 2023, though this may be due to the lack of an industry standard definition of what constitutes jumbo glass.
Companies report doing more retrofit work in 2023, possibly due to economic uncertainty and project pauses, or other market factors. This includes higher interest rates prompting more people to renovate rather than buy new, or sustainable building trends urging more renovation. Seven percent of last year’s respondents said retrofit work comprised 50% or more of their work; this year, almost a third said that retrofit represented half or more of their business projects.
Companies continue to procure raw glass primarily from North America, with Europe and Asia as distant seconds. As noted later in the report, respondents say that procuring raw glass eased significantly in 2023; this year, only 5% of respondents named it a major challenge, compared to 30% in 2022.
78%
Added production capacity in 2023
85%
Invested in capital equipment in 2023
53%
Automated some part of their process in 2023
Above: Modern glass designs contribute to the stunning lobby of the George H.W. Bush State Office Building, including a feature wall that pays tribute to the 41st President through historical images recreated on glass by GGI with their Alice Direct to Glass Printing. Photo by Color Kote.
Investments
Companies largely did what they planned to do in terms of investment in 2023, investing in fabrication equipment and launching new product lines. Eighty-five percent of respondents said they invested in equipment in 2023, surpassing the 81% of respondents who said they planned to do so in last year’s report. Forty-five percent of companies said they launched new product lines in 2023, compared to the 46% of companies that reportedly planned to in the 2023 report.
Overall, 78% of responding companies said they added some type of production capacity in 2023, down almost 10 points from the previous year; possibly due to the continued difficulty with inflation reported by respondents. While 18% of respondents said they would add locations and/or manufacturing space in last year’s report, only 8% of this year’s respondents report doing so.
Further automation, and plans to automate, are down year-over-year. While 65% of respondents last year said they automated manufacturing processes, only 53% of this year’s respondents report having automated processes in 2023. While 66% of last year’s respondents planned to automate, 56% of this year’s respondents say they plan to do so in the coming year.
Equipment purchases and new product launches again top investment plans for 2024, according to respondents.
70%
Higher sales in 2023
34%
Added shifts in 2023
46%
Inflation biggest pain point other than labor
Above: All Weather Windows Glass employees inspect glass after it has gone through high performance glass cleaning system.
Sales and Challenges
Overall gross sales increased for most companies in 2023. Seventy percent of reporting companies said they had higher year-over-year sales, compared to 77% in last year’s report. More companies, 11%, did report lower year-over-year sales, compared to 2% last year.
Inflation remained a major pain point in 2023, and a likely obstacle to increased sales; 46% named it their major issue, compared to 37% the previous year. Respondents indicated that inflation and interest rates have had, and could continue to have, a negative impact on the whole industry and impact further growth.
“The economic fallout of higher interest rates have affected planned construction in the building markets,” says Alex Miramontez, vice president and chief financial officer, Glaz-Tech Industries Inc. “Inflation in raw materials have hurt, and as we pivot into new markets, it’s hard to increase pricing for our legacy project business, so we have to eat that cost,” says Kevin Roth, founder and CEO, Privacy Glass Solutions.
Logistics and transportation remained as much a sore point last year as in the previous report, according to respondents. “Logistics challenges can be attributed to factors such as transportation costs, customs regulations and potential delays at borders,” says Amanda Gonzalez, PR and communications manager, Tecnoglass.
By geographic region, construction growth evolved similarly to what was predicted by respondents in last year’s report, with the Northeast and Southeast again taking the lead. Respondents predict the same pattern moving into 2024.
Above: The multi-award-winning Morrow High School designed by Perkins+Will showcases multiple glass applications fabricated by American Insulated Glass (acquired by Trulite in March 2024), including the SunGuard eXtraSelective SNX 51/23 specified for the building façade. Photo by Jonathan Hillyer.
The List
The 67 companies that comprise the 2024 Top Glass Fabricators ranking represent some of the foremost glass fabricators in this industry. Businesses that are part of this ranking must fabricate architectural glass, supply the North American market, and have gross sales that equal or exceed $5 million. Do you feel your company belongs on the list? Contact Norah Dick, senior editor of Glass Magazine, at ndick@glass.org.
