Archive and Content Search
Trulite Glass & Aluminum Solutions closed out 2014 with yet another acquisition, and at the rate the company is currently moving, there may be more on the horizon.
“We continue to see opportunities for consolidation in this market,” Trulite CEO Paul Schmitz told USGNN.com™. “As new opportunities arise, we will appraise them and assess how they can add value to our customers and Trulite as a whole. Generally, we continue to be interested in further growth through acquisition.”
Trulite’s most recent purchase was that of AGC Glass Company North America’s U.S. commercial fabrication assets, which it announced last week.
“Foremost this acquisition allowed us access to numerous valuable customer relationships,” Schmitz says of the transaction, of which the terms are confidential. “It did this in conjunction with broadening our geographic footprint while giving us immediate access to relatively new fabrication equipment.”
The acquisition, he adds, also provides Trulite “a secure supply of glass in the near and distant future.”
Just a little over a month prior to the latest transaction, Trulite completed an acquisition of Texas Tempered Glass, and the company made three other acquisitions since January 2011.
“Our proven commitment to operational excellence has positioned us well to meet the rapidly increasing demand for quality fabricated products,” Schmitz said last month. “We will continue to grow organically and through strategic acquisitions to meet this demand and better serve the industry.”
As for whether any of the locations in the most recent purchase will be closed or sold, Schmitz says “AGC has made no secret of the poor financial performance of these facilities over the last several years,” adding that Trulite will continue to operate the Knoxville, Salt Lake City, Houston and San Antonio locations.
“The impact to the AGC employees is yet unknown as we are trying to place as many of them as possible in current Trulite facilities,” he says.
The company acquired Western States Glass Corp. in January 2013 and now has more than 26 fabrication facilities throughout North America.
AGC had at least 15 commercial fab locations in the US I believe. So Trulite is closing 11 of them? I also know that Trulite already had a location in SLC, so I’m guessing some consolidation there. My heart goes out to all those good people that will lose their jobs, and all those glaziers who will have fewer options.
We were first excited to hear that Trulite had purchased AGC but then they shut down our Richmond, Virginia branch which makes no sense to anyone in this area because they had no competition locally. Trulite is getting a bad reputation in this area because this is now the second time they have done this in Richmond. First it was Vitro and now AGC costing hundreds of good people their jobs and those of us in the industry that relied on these companies to supply us with product scrambling to fill the demand for glass in our area. If they could not make money in Richmond, Virginia it is their own fault because they had no competition within 100 miles. We need a Good company to start up a tempering and IG plant in Richmond Virginia that refuses to sell out to these guys!!