Local Pittsburgh Businessman Invests Millions to Reopen Glass Plant Damaged by Hurricane Ivan

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). Glenshaw Glass (Glenshaw, Pennsylvania) has a reopening date set. On November 15, 2006, the glass plant will reopen for business. It was forward thinking that allowed a local Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania businessman to invest millions in reopening the Glenshaw Glass plant that was damaged and then closed due to hurricane Ivan, which swept the area in 2004.

It was 1894, when two glassblowers from Pittsburgh, a hotelkeeper and a retail merchant, started their own glass plant at Glenshaw. The company continued to grow and by 1961, had a branch plant in Orangeburg, New York. They made glass bottles for beers, minerals, liquors, flasks, wines, packers and some might think most importantly, soda bottles. It took a Hurricane to grind operations to a halt. Hurricane Ivan raced through the area in 2004 causing major flooding and damage to the area. About half-dozen businesses were lost along with major residential damage. The good news is that a local businessman, Bill Kelman, the new owner of the Glenshaw Glass Company, is restarting the plant.

About 350 jobs were lost when the plant closed. It’s estimated that the plant will employ about 100 people when it reopens it doors for business on November 15, 2006. Over $8 million was spent to reopen the facility. Glass melting furnaces that were damaged in the flood were rebuilt and made ready for production. Equipment was cleaned and upgraded in preparation for the reopening. A new plant manager, Dawn Dietz, has been hired and is on site. Other key employee positions are being addressed.

In early October 2006, more than 100 bidders came together from near and far to vie for excess inventory. Bidders in Brazil, Venezuela, and the United Kingdom took part via the Internet and by telephone for the auction conducted at the soon to reopen 500,000-square-foot glass plant. Complete lines of glass bottle making equipment went on the block, furnaces, glass batching equipment, lehrs, labelers and packers all were offered to the highest bidders. The new operations will be approximately a third the size of the former operations.

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