The National Glass Association held its winter NGA Glass Conference Feb. 9. At the top of the agenda for the virtual meeting: new energy and environmental codes and regulations that will impact the glass industry, driving product trends and asking more from companies.
The big news of the week was all surrounding what is going on with JE Berkowitz and the CGH brand. JEB has suspended operations and Columbia in Texas is closing, and that was tough news to take. Good companies that had some super people.
Recently AIA released their “Consensus” forecast update that takes eight different indexes and averages them out. The prediction for 2021, when all is said and done, is a 5.7 percent decrease in nonresidential spending in the new year.
While 2020 came to an end, the start of 2021 has not looked much different just yet―but I am remaining patient because, thanks to the breakthroughs happening worldwide in terms of vaccine distribution and therapeutics, the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel appears visible. This hopefully means that 2021 will be a better year for all, including the industry.
I am excited to announce a new addition to the “From the Fabricator” family. I have launched a new monthly podcast! Yes, as if once a week my writing was not enough, now once a month you can see/hear me talking up the industry.
Hot off the presses, it’s time to dive into my predictions for our industry in 2021. This should be a very interesting year (understatement alert) as we continue to hopefully move further and further away from the 2020 virus.
The year 2020 was packed with change. By some accounts, 3-5 years of technological advancement happened in one year. This change happened faster and sooner than previously anticipated, partly due to technology and partly due to human innovation/resourcefulness. Change, for better or worse, affords us the opportunity to be more flexible, efficient, productive, and customer centric, all of which enable your company to succeed in the future.
As is tradition, on the second post of the new year, I make predictions for our industry right here on this blog. Some years are better than others, and each following year I review them and either take a victory lap or take my lumps. Obviously, for my 2020 predictions I should get a pass on all because the year surely wasn’t normal.