PPG Auto Glass Business Rumored to Become Pittsburgh Glass Works; Former Employee Comments on GM Cutbacks

It is rumored that PPG Industries' auto glass business and services unit will undergo a name change as soon as tomorrow. The new name being bandied about by sources at the company is "Pittsburgh Glass Works." It is rumored that the company plans to announce the change tomorrow via press release.

PPG spokesperson Jack Maurer would neither confirm or deny the new name.

The name change would be one in a series of many changes at PPG, including the agreement to sell majority interest of its auto glass business and services unit to private equity firm Kohlberg & Co. LLC. (CLICK HERE for related story.)

Despite industry concerns that this could affect the Pittsburgh-based business or the sale of the auto glass business, Russ Corsi, who served as manager of technical services for PPG Industries' auto glass replacement unit for 31 years prior to his retirement, told glassBYTEs.com™/AGRR magazine last week that he doesn't expect the recently announced cutbacks at General Motors (GM) to affect PPG Auto Glass much at all, as the company has cut back on its work with GM in recent years. (CLICK HERE for related story.)

"… Over the years PPG has been trying to minimize the amount of growth [with] GM-they were moving more business toward Nissan, Toyota, [etc.]," Corsi said. "I know it was on a downward trend."

He also noted that GM purchases its glass from numerous sources.

"If you look at GM in general, they're buying glass from all over," Corsi said. "When they were running the GTO, which was made in Australia, it actually had Chinese glass, so [GM's] impact on any individual glass company would be minimized."

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