Yes, Glass is Great
Last week Glass Magazine published a story that took off like a rocket ship and was shared a ton on social media. Honestly, this was a story that should be shared in every office in our industry and with as many people outside of our bubble as possible. The article written by the awesome Karen Wegert of the NGA Tech Super Hero team, was “6 Reasons to Love Architectural Glass” and it hit so many high points in such a quick and efficient manner.
All of us who work in this industry love the product. We may hate the game and may be frustrated by tons of other areas, but the product is special and Karen did a super job in pushing that theme. The reason I think we need to share this widely is I don’t think enough people realize how great glass is and all of the things it brings to the party. Plus, thanks to some amazing entrepreneurial companies, glass continues to evolve with more performance and more advantages. We have a ton to be proud of and I loved that so many shared this piece already. Let’s keep spreading the gospel out there and kudos to Karen and the NGA tech team for once again delivering the goods.
Elsewhere…
September/October Glass Magazine
Time for this month’s Glass Magazine review, and it was the annual Glass Magazine Awards edition. There was no doubt this one would be a keeper, showing off the best of the best in our industry with a focus on the winners in this year’s competition.
Absolute showstoppers in here and kudos to the judges as I am sure their decisions were extremely challenging. In addition to the rundown of the winners with all of the pertinent details, the magazine also had articles from the excellent Matt Johnson of the Gary Law Group and my guy Joe Erb of Quanex (who never fails to make a great point or 100). Plus Katy Devlin on the “Digital Factory” is one to catch for sure. Tremendous issue overall and one to give you inspiration to be one of the winners in the 2022 Glass Magazine Awards!
Ad of the Month
The ad of the month was a tough one as I try not to award the same companies too often, but this month it was recent past winners that once again had the best ads in my opinion. Banner Solutions won my praise back in January and they get it again here. Something about their color scheme and icon usage gets me every time. Just a sharp and winning approach. Kudos to the team at Banner for taking the top spot again!
Supply Chain Report
The latest Supply Chain report from Gilbane was released this week. Remember this is the report that comes out and covers all building products and how the cost, inventory, and delivery are proceeding. Are things stable or not? For most products the reports are delayed delivery, increasing prices, and contracting inventories. Glass has been less volatile (believe it or not) in recent surveys but this one is starting to show the harsh reality we are all aware of. Under inventories, it is showing “contracting” which is different from April’s report of “stabilizing.”
Delivery is showing that we are stable; only one of four product categories in this “good” area, which goes to the amazing hustle and resilience of everyone in this industry to keep figuring out ways to get our product to the sites no matter what the obstacle. We’ll see how this plays out but there is no doubt the overall supply chain is still a very messy place.
Natural Gas Supply in Europe
Also on supply chain, the natural gas issues in Europe are something to be concerned with. The top of this daily column from “The Scroll” made me queasy. The experts do feel like the situation there will get better soon, but I can’t help to feel a bit uneasy. Plus, I am starting to fret that the U.S. stock market is about to finally break. Maybe I should take one of those off the grid weekends again soon, eh?
Contracts and the Fine Print
Last this week… good article on being careful in reading your contracts, as more than ever, you can get burned badly in our current crazy world. Our session at GEF covered some of this but this article makes a strong case and hopefully will get more folks paying attention to the fine print!
