Can’t keep a good man down

Glass Times editor Nathan Bushell reveals that the former owner of HL Plastics, Roger Hartshorn, has new plans for the glazing industry.

I’ve lost count of the times people have said to me: “Once you are in this industry, you’ll never leave.”

I have to admit, if you see a person leave one company then they will soon pop up somewhere else, and it’s more difficult to think of people who now do something entirely different. In fact, even those who have genuinely gone on to do other things are often referred to time and time again as though they were still playing an active part in the glass and glazing industry.

Of course, continuing the industry’s favourite conversation at the moment – the skills crisis – then it’s perhaps not surprising that we are reluctant to let go of talented people. But one person whose departure I hadn’t even had the chance to contemplate – other than a fleeting mention at the recent Building Our Skills conference at Liniar House in Derbyshire – has already started to make his future intentions known: Roger Hartshorn.

Now, Roger needs little in the way of introduction, and he has made more of an impact on the glass and glazing industry than most people. So when he left Liniar this summer, after selling the company to Quanex three year’s ago, it seemed unlikely that he would be gone
for long.

And, sure enough, we learned yesterday that he has bought an extrusion business from Synseal and resurrected the LB Plastics brand (Sheerframe and Masterdor will remain part of the Synseal Group).

We also learned that Roger’s company – Garner Holdings – will be extruding aluminium profiles by next summer.

I’m sure we’ll be learning more about this in months to come.