How do smaller glass companies maintain a level playing field with their bigger rivals? By partnering with the right suppliers, according to joint managing director of Mackenzie Glass, Mark Herbert.

The general trend across the glass industry in the last ten years is a move towards fewer, larger companies, managing greater volumes of work.

For an industry that is built on vision, expertise and commitment shown by smaller, family-run businesses across the UK, it is a difficult trend to digest. But the nature of glass processing today favours the larger enterprise, which can more comfortably invest in machinery and other infrastructure that builds efficiencies into the glass product supply chain.

“Even before the challenging conditions brought about by issues in the energy supply chain during 2022, we saw some glass companies grow, while others were bought or stopped operating,” says Mark Herbert, joint managing director of Mackenzie Glass. “But as we head into 2023, the ability to manage large amounts of glass will be a defining feature of a successful business.

“This is either to hedge their bets against further rises in the cost of energy (which pushes glass prices higher), or shortages caused by float-line closures across Europe, brought on by the war in Ukraine. Glass companies must also be in a position to diversify, so they can take on extra work from new sectors to make up for the shortfall in work from existing sources.”

On the one hand, it is a positive overall picture, in that the industry as a whole is well-positioned to manage a downturn. On the other, managing large stocks of glass conflicts with the old adage of ‘cash is king’ during a recession, when you want the buffer on your balance sheets, not in your warehouse.

“This puts smaller businesses in a difficult position,” Mark explains. “Many glass companies have a great customer base, a great product range, and an exceptional service ethos to match. But they don’t have the space or the capital to invest in large volumes of glass.”

According to Mark, companies that partner with Mackenzie Glass are well-positioned to avoid these pressures on stock, because the Bristol-based merchanting company, offering one of the widest range of glass products in the UK, has designed its operations to manage stock levels on their behalf.

“Buying huge stillages of glass is simply not an option for many glass companies,” Mark reflects, “which is why Mackenzie Glass delivers glass to our customers in the quantities they require. We also proved during the supply chain disruption in the months following the lifting of the Covid restrictions in the UK, that we continued to fulfil orders, even when glass manufacturers were struggling to meet demand.”

Mackenzie Glass can also cut and process glass to sizes that suit customers’ requirements, giving them a further advantage in a world increasingly dominated by larger companies.

“Size does not always equate to quality or decent service,” Mark says. “Our customers are involved in some excellent projects, and we are focused on supplying them with products that help them complete them.

“In addition to quantity and quality, we are also obsessed with variety,” Mark says, “and we’ve had considerable success in supplying specialist glass that has been unavailable elsewhere. This could simply be unusual thicknesses, but it could also extend to such products as decorative, etched, multi-coloured mirrors, antique silvers, heat and fire resistant products, and bespoke restoration glasses.

“We make it our duty to seek out the specialist glass, which our customers’ competitors will not have access to, thus giving them a commercial advantage.

“Mackenzie Glass has a long established, robust and trusting trading relationship with the UK glass manufacturers, but if their customers require specialist products that they don’t make, then we need to go further afield. And in recent months, we have travelled overseas to meet with several existing and potential new partners, both European, Asian and Middle East, to continue offering a wide range of exciting new products from around the globe.”

Mark concludes: “A downturn may be on the way, but we see it as our duty to remove those barriers to completing high-end and varied work, and allowing our customers to remain competitive without significant investment.”