Pittsburgh Glass Works to Close Evart, Mich., Plant; Company Officials Continue to Research Another Possible Closing

Pittsburgh Glass Works LLC (PGW) has announced the closing of its Evart, Mich., manufacturing facility. Company officials say they attribute the closing to the continuing decline in demand for auto glass brought about by the slump in the U.S auto industry.

"The Evart employees are an excellent workforce, with a very good track record of quality, cooperative teamwork and productivity performance," says chief operating officer Joseph Stas. "The employees did everything that they could to make the plant viable. Unfortunately the current severe industry downturn has resulted in an overcapacity situation that is not sustainable for the foreseeable future."

The plant was purchased from Chrysler Corp in 1998 by PPG Industries Inc. Parts currently produced at the Evart facility will be transferred to other PGW factories in North America by the end of March. Evart plant operations will cease at that time.

At that time, the company also announced it was exploring the closing of two more plants, and that these would be announced in January 2009. However, PGW vice president of marketing and research and development Richard Heilman says the company continues to research whether another plant will be closed.

“… We did announce that additional capacity adjustments were being studied and that two more plants could be announced for closure in 2009,” Heilman told glassBYTEs.com™/AGRR magazine. “The Evart plant is one and we continue to study capacity versus customer demand to determine whether [another] plant closure is required and when that may occur. “

With regard to the Evart closing, Heilman says replacement shops should expect no changes, as the facility made OEM glass exclusively.

“The Evart facility is overwhelmingly dedicated to OEM product, therefore there will be no affect on our production or distribution of replacement glass parts,” he added.

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