Worth the risk
Steven Marques, sales director at Cornwall Glass Manufacturing, argues that those companies that continue to adapt reap the biggest rewards.
The influence of glass on architecture, interior design and home improvement has increased steadily over the last 40 years, requiring glass manufacturers, processors and installers to adapt and change in response, according to Cornwall Glass Manufacturing’s sales director, Steven Marques.
“The market is changing – it is always changing,” Steven says. “People want higher performing windows, high performing doors, they want higher light transmission, bigger sight lines, and less material. And they want all this coupled with the performance that help buildings achieve the climate and net zero targets.”
Steven understands that to constantly reinvent yourself to meet these changing demands requires significant investment, so those companies that are not building a healthy margin in to their prices could struggle to remain relevant.
“The ones who are thinking about the future, and are thinking about where their business will be in five or 10 years’ time – those are the customers that seem to be generating enough margins from the work they’re doing to reinvest in their business,” Steven says.
“Whereas, I find the customers that aren’t doing that, aren’t making the margins. They’re basically just paying their overheads, and there’s no money left to invest in their business.”
Steven understands that the decision to invest in higher value work is not an easy one, because the levels of risk also increase. And if those glass companies take that jump, there is a danger they will become exposed, especially if they don’t have the correct technical support.
“When companies start servicing higher value projects, the costs increase,” he continues. “The cost of the products increases, and if they get things wrong, the cost of their losses increases. And these are the things that can catch them out.”
After 45 years in business, Steven argues that Cornwall Glass Manufacturing has built up the levels of experience needed to navigate those sometimes tricky waters.
“I’ve had these conversations with other customers, and I’ve told them that we know the pain,” Steven says. “That gives customers the comfort and confidence to go ahead and tackle these bigger and challenging jobs, which previously might have been too daunting to attempt.
“As a result, there are customers that we’ve walked a long journey with, who you wouldn’t recognise today because they jumped in, took the challenge, and they came out on top.”
Cornwall Glass Manufacturing has invested in machinery across its sites in Plymouth and St Austell to meet increased demand for higher value items – such as oversized units – and to maintain high levels of quality.
This include a £1.5 million Bystronic sealed unit line at the St Austell site, which replaces a similar line that was installed 20 years ago. The new line is designed to manufacture triple glazed units, incorporating online silicone and polysulphide application, alongside gas filling, speeding up the process and maintaining high quality standards.
And a new heat soak oven recently installed at the Plymouth facility, supplied and installed by Peter Lambert, helps the regional unit manufacturer guarantee its products against spontaneous breakage. It can handle units up to 4.2m x 2.7m.
“Alongside a niche high-value product range, we can supply our customers with the technical knowledge to bid for types of work they would not have dealt with before, but they want to give it a try,” Steven explains.
“It’s really a personal relationship that I’ve formed with customers based on their capacity and their capabilities. And I’d say I probably have two or three dozen customers now where their businesses have been revolutionised. They’re not the business today that they were three, four years ago when we started having these conversations.
“And some of them have increased their factories,” he adds. “They’ve got bigger fleets, bigger teams, and they’re always looking to us to reinvest in our business because there comes a point where what they’re asking for is maybe even something more than what we’re able to provide them with.
“So, we’re always having conversations where we need to invest things like heat soak ovens and other types of processing machines, and we’re aiming to stay on the front foot all of the time, which help our customers grow.”
