Binswanger Glass Inc. built on small family business

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Binswanger Glass is one of the largest glass retailers in the United States, but you probably won't guess that if you ventured into one of the company's two Springfield stores. The family atmosphere at Binswanger Glass just isn't typical of a large company.|ret||ret||tab|

Binswanger Glass started out as a small, family business. Samuel Binswanger founded the company in 1872 when he opened a small glass store in Richmond, Va., and eventually his four sons came to work alongside their father. |ret||ret||tab|

Over the years, Binswanger Glass grew, and more stores were opened in Memphis and Houston. |ret||ret||tab|

In 1947, a new division called Binswanger Mirror was founded during the post-war building boom. The company continued to grow, and by the 1950s, Binswanger had more than 1,000 employees and 21 warehouses. |ret||ret||tab|

In 1974, Binswanger founded a new division called Glass-craft, which produced heavy glass tabletops. Today, Glass-craft is one of the largest fabricators of heavy glass tabletops in the world. |ret||ret||tab|

Known for its commitment to excellence, Glasscraft beat out hundreds of other companies in 1982 to earn the honor of en-graving more than 57,000 names on the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C. |ret||ret||tab|

In 1992, Vidrio Plano purchased Binswanger and its divisions, and the new company was renamed VVP America Inc. |ret||ret||tab|

Eight years later, VVP Amer-ica purchased Harding Glass, another national retail glass company, and later that same year, all of Harding Glass' retail stores were renamed Bin-swanger Glass. Today, Bin-swanger Glass has more than 170 retail stores in 39 states. |ret||ret||tab|

Two of these retail stores are located in Springfield one on East St. Louis Street and another on South Campbell Avenue. The store on East St. Louis Street primarily handles commercial and residential projects and auto glass work, while the one on South Campbell Avenue handles residential jobs and auto glass work. |ret||ret||tab|

Greg Marsh been working in the glass industry since he was 16. Marsh formerly was president of Village Glass Inc. In 2001, he accepted an offer from Binswanger Glass and became its branch manager.|ret||ret||tab|

Binswanger Glass handles a wide variety of projects for customers in the Springfield area. The company's commercial construction division designs and installs custom storefronts, entrance doors and heavy glass doors. It also installs a wide variety of revolving and automatic doors, mirrors and safety glass. |ret||ret||tab|

The company also does commercial maintenance work, re-placing glass in high-rises, storefronts, boats, doors and windows. |ret||ret||tab|

The residential division does a wide variety of work as well, including window glass, insulated glass, patio and porch en-closures, tub and shower enclosures, mirrored walls, glass table tops, mirrors and beveled glass products. |ret||ret||tab|

In addition to doing commercial construction, commercial maintenance and residential work, Binswanger Glass does auto glass work and specialty work, such as cash cages, security products and decorative glass.|ret||ret||tab|

Being able to offer customers a wide range of services has helped Binswanger Glass stand out from the competition, ac-cording to Marsh. |ret||ret||tab|

So has the company's competitive pricing.|ret||ret||tab|

ACI Distribution-South, which also is owned by VVP America, manufactures and distributes all of the glass products used at Binswanger Glass. This allows Binswanger Glass to get the products it installs at a lower rate, said Marsh, and this savings is passed along to customers. |ret||ret||tab|

Last year, Binswanger Glass' store on East St. Louis Street did more than $2.5 million worth of business, said Marsh. This year, Marsh thinks the store will break that sales re-cord, thanks to several new projects under construction at Jack Henry & Associates in Monett and Parkcrest Baptist Church in Springfield. The company also is closely watching the progress on proposed construction of a new aviation museum, which will be located in north Springfield. |ret||ret||tab|

Being part of a multinational corporation has its advantages. Still, Binswanger Glass has managed to retain the atmosphere of a family-run business. |ret||ret||tab|

"Most of our employees used to work for Harding Glass," said Marsh. "A lot of them were skeptical at first, but now they see the advantages of working for a company like Binswanger. They have a better overall compensation package now, and morale has improved because they know management cares. Best of all, upper management has continued to let us run this like a family-operated company."[[In-content Ad]]