After a year in which West Virginia“s glass industry seemed set to lose one of its most enduring names, 2008 is looking more hopeful. In August 2007, Fenton Art Glass president George Fenton announce…
After a year in which West Virginia“s glass industry seemed set to lose one of its most enduring names, 2008 is looking more hopeful. In August 2007, Fenton Art Glass president George Fenton announced plans to close down the 102-year-old company for good, citing economic pressures attributable in part to the escalating price of natural gas. However, a rush of orders from dealers and collectors keen to own one last piece of Fenton allowed the Williamstown-based company to fight on. In December 2007, the company announced it would stay in business. “The spurt of orders that we got gave us both extra financial resources so that we could deal with additional portions of our debt and obligations, and some time to make additional changes to the way we do the business”, Mr. Fenton said. The more streamlined company has reduced the number of pieces and colors in its catalog, Mr. Fenton said. It is also using its Web site to communicate with dealers, cutting down on production costs for the catalog. “For years and years we“ve had a very large catalog with many items and many colors”, he said. “What we have done currently is we are having a more limited offering at any particular time”. The company is still in restructuring mode and must overcome a number of obstacles in order to survive, but Mr. Fenton remains optimistic about the future. “I think we have a more sustainable business model”, he said. “Every day we get a little bit closer to being able to say that we have the major change issues behind us and now we just need to meet our plan. I“m looking forward to the day where we can focus only on production, design and customer service”. Blenko Glass Co., a Milton-based glass plant, also adjusted its business model in 2007, putting more emphasis on production of architectural bricks and tiles. “We“re falling back to our roots”, said Brent Aikman, Blenko“s director of sales and marketing for architectural/antique glass division. He noted that the company was originally set up to produce architectural and sheet glass. “The phrase I use is: “We“re not changing the way we make glass, we“re changing the way we do business.“ We“re getting noticed again on the architectural side”. Recent high-profile projects include the Thomas Jefferson Hall Library at the US Military Academy at West Point, New York, which used around 10,000 glass bricks, and a historic preservation project in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Blenko chemists matched the size and color of century-old vault tiles in the sidewalk, Mr. Aikman said. “[That] let our side of the company prove our mettle”, Mr. Aikman said proudly. “If you need something special, we can do it”. The company has also seen an increase in orders for flat glass from Japan, Europe and Central America, he said. The average tenure of a Blenko employee is 20 years, which translates into an intimate knowledge of the product and its potential, he said. “These guys know what glass can do and can“t do”, he said. Upcoming projects include participation in the new alumni center at West Virginia University. “2008 looks to be a wonderful year for this company”, Mr. Aikman said. “We“ve got projects on the board already that are going to be key to our view in the public eye”.