Owen Cornings, the US producer of fibreglass, glass composites, and roofing materials, has built an impressive new riverfront headquarters. CEO Glen H. Hiner (the successor of Al Dunlap) aims to trans…
Owen Cornings, the US producer of fibreglass, glass composites, and roofing materials, has built an impressive new riverfront headquarters. CEO Glen H. Hiner (the successor of Al Dunlap) aims to transform the company into a world competitor capable of offering know-how, not mere production. With Mr. Hiner, Owens Corning has accumulated high figures, including 21 consecutive quarters of year-over-year improved profits from ongoing operations. Owens Corning has a big housing-supply business in Europe, where economies are still flat. And though Owens Corning is convinced that its old debts have been forgotten, analysts are, however, more cautious. With Mr. Hiner as CEO, by the end of 1995, sales were up from US$ 2.8 billion to US$ 3.6 billion, long-term debt down from US$ 900 million to about US$ 800 million. Last year Mr. Hiner said that in 2000, when it is time for him to retire, he wants Owens Corning to be a US$ 5 billion company that will supply just about everything it takes to build a house, from insulation, to siding, to windows. And he promised that the company would get 40% of its sales outside the US, productivity would grow 6% a year and profits twice as fast as sales. But last summer progress was so good that Hiner made his goal even more difficult, stating that Owens Corning would achieve it a year early, by 1999.