EquiNova joined more than 9,200 other participants in Las Vegas last month for GlassBuild America, the glass and fenestration industry’s biggest annual event. There were attendees from 64 countries and 535 exhibiting companies. Here’s what we learned:

• The market is predicted to see flat or slow growth the next couple of years. Companies plan to grow in these ways:
  • Being creative and nimble.
  • Taking market share from other companies.
  • Acquiring other companies. Some sellers tell us they value the idea of being acquired by a family-owned business, rather than a private equity fund or large acquirer.
  • Focusing on certain areas–Texas, for instance–that are expected to outperform other states, such as California.

• Most companies we talked with are down slightly to up slightly in sales, though a few component suppliers said they were up 10% to 15% versus last year. High-end products are performing better than mid-price-point products.

• Machinery manufacturers told us they were focused on selling their ability to deliver uptime and capacity expansion.

• Most window manufacturers with whom we talked are planning to make meaningful investments in machinery and equipment in the year ahead.

• Coming retirements of senior officials was a common concern. As those people depart over the next few years, mid-level managers have an opportunity to move up. The challenge is to capture the retiring senior leaders’ institutional knowledge before they go as well as maintain the retirees’ long-time customer relationships.

• Remodeling is outperforming new construction because people don’t want to sell their homes and give up their favorable mortgage rates. Similarly, companies we talked to that handle siding and roofing in addition to windows and doors report that siding and roofing are seeing strong growth.

• A couple companies said they had success getting back money they paid to suppliers for tariffs. This tended to work only if the suppliers had explicitly referred to the tariffs as surcharges and the suppliers had received a refund on those tariffs.