I started as an assistant editor for Glass Magazine in 2017. Given that the magazine is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, and that this April issue features the long-running Top Glass Fabricators report, I thought it might be appropriate to look back at the first Top Glass Fabricators report I worked on in 2018.
Reading through that magazine feature from seven years ago, I was not surprised to see some throughlines in the challenges that continue to face leading industry fabricators today. Here is a sample of the leading reported challenges that year:
- Expanding investments in automation due to a low labor supply.
- The struggle to meet increasingly complex design requirements for higher-performing glass.
- Increased demand from customers for higher quality.
- A need for larger fabrication machinery to keep up with increasing glass sizes.
Does any of this sound familiar? The answer is likely, yes. Based on responses for this year’s Top Glass Fabricators report, companies continue to have difficulty finding labor, while nevertheless continuing to work hard to provide the built environment with glass that can keep up with increasing demands for aesthetics, performance, larger sizes, and now, sustainability requirements.
While some challenges remain, others have changed. 2018’s leading fabricators were stretched due to high demand and a stronger market, whereas this year’s fabricators face a softening market. Seventy-one percent of 2018 fabricators reported higher year-over-year gross sales, compared to only 32% of respondents in this year’s report.
Fabricators in 2018 were also dealing with a glass shortage due to the unexpected idling of U.S. float lines. While there’s not the same concern for this year’s fabricators, they report that costs for raw glass—and everything else—have risen in the last year as inflation remains a concern. Fabricators in this year’s report also expressed concern related to competition and lingering issues with the supply chain.
But, like the companies included in the 2018 report, current fabricators continue to invest in their business, and in future growth—whether that means investing in capital equipment, adding new locations and facilities, innovating new products, or creating a training program for employees.
Because this is the 75th anniversary of Glass Magazine, we also asked companies to tell us if they’re 75 years (or older). An amazing 11 reporting companies told us they were 75 years or older, and two are in fact 100 years or older. While this certainly doesn’t mean that the industry’s current challenges don’t matter, it does speak to the resilience of fabricators and their ability to overcome the many headwinds of recent decades to continue to meet industry demands.
Check out the Top Glass Fabricators industry ranking and market report.
