Company expands to meet glass product demand

Tag : Metal Glass
When the owners of Central Insulated Glass decided to build a newfacility, it was an easy decision to integrate glass in theBridgeport Township building design.
Showcasing its "curtain wall" system of all metal and glass, thefront entrance of the Bridgeport Township facility is a sparklingdisplay of floor-to-ceiling, high-efficiency glass that keeps thebuilding warm in the winter and cool in the summer, said ownersJohn and Robin Eagan.
"You see these curtain wall systems a lot in airports and highrises, said Robin Eagan.
In addition the front entrance, one entire wall of the building'sconference room is all glass and is set off with an enormousglass-topped table, accent mirrors and a window that againshowcases the large-size insulated glass windows CIG can create.
It was their customers' requests for larger pieces of glass thatprompted the Eagans to erect a new building that would allow themthe space to create such large pieces, John Eagan said.
And even though the 12,000-square-foot building and $1 millionproject was completed just a few months ago, John Eagan said healready needs another 12,000 square feet.
"We do things differently," John Eagan said. "We don't let theeconomy dictate what we do."
The Eagans have many years of experience in the glass industry,after having operated two retail stores in Florida that they soldto a national company. They decided to move back to Michigan, whichis where they are originally from, and opened CIG in 2003 in BirchRun.
Today, CIG deals in wholesale glass and fabrication, creating glasstables, doors, windows, mirrors going through almost 100,000 poundsof glass a month.
John Eagan is working on hiring additional staff to keep up withhis growth, indicating he has about 300 customers who he works withthroughout the eastern half of Michigan, such as Birch Run CustomGlass in Birch Run and Kelly Glass in Saginaw.
"I want to go to the west side of the state and get that chunk ofthe pie," he said.
One reason he is confident he will attract new customers is becauseof a new piece of equipment he's getting from Korea that will allowhim to produce insulated glass pieces in much larger quantities.
The machine will allow him to create 350 units of glass in aneight-hour shift, and also has the capability of producing muchlarger pieces of insulated glass than he was able to do before.
"He is passionate about glass," Robin Eagan said.
"I don't take no for an answer," he said. "I chase what I want."

Eagan also focuses his energy on making commercial bids for jobsand then networking with one of his customers - glass stores - tocomplete the job.
CIG will manufacture the glass and the customer will do the labor.For Eagan, it's a win-win situation and helps to keep customerrelationships on a solid foundation.
Ruth Mancina is a freelance writer living in Saginaw.