Glass Wholesalers Inc. history

The invention of the automatic glass bottle blowing machine in 1903 changed the product into the commodity it has become today.

In 1924, Westmoreland Specialty Company became Westmoreland Glass Company to thwart potential confusion about wares being distributed by the business.

Founded in 1926 as a retail shop called Harry R. Mygrant Glass & Glazing, Mygrant Glass is now a third generation business.

Apogee traces its origins to July 1949, when a truck driver and part-time glass installer founded the Harmon Glass Company in Minneapolis by convincing another installer and a used car salesman to pool $3,000 and launch their own service business.

Lacking the necessary cash, the three sought financing early in 1950 from the St Paul lawyer who had incorporated the business and his partner, Russ Baumgardner.

By 1953, Baumgardner's ultimate decision had already begun to prove a wise one.

Flat Glass Distributors began as Glass Distributors Inc. in 1957 in downtown Jacksonville.

Following Burrows's surprise retirement in 1963, Baumgardner invited three valued executives--Don Goldfus, Larry Niederhofer, and Don Eichler&mdashø become principal shareholders with him, going so far as to arrange loans for each of them to purchase the company stock.

In 1966, Harmon Glass branched beyond Minnesota for the first time, opening a store in Des Moines, Iowa.

Cash-poor and with 1967 sales of just $2.7 million, Apogee was an unlikely buyer.

In the winter of 1968, Apogee (a name that originated with an investment club to which Baumgardner once belonged and a term suggestive of the space age) was formed as a holding company to coordinate operations.

Groundbreaking for the $1.2 million-facility was begun in April 1970 near Owatonna, Minnesota.

By 1971, with five-year average increases in revenues and earnings of 34 percent and 45 percent, respectively, Apogee represented a particularly hot prospect for an initial stock offering.

Furthermore, he went on to win a $750,000 office center contract from Dayton Hudson Corporation in 1973 by offering a full-service bid for not only the glazing, but the curtainwall as well as certain design and engineering aspects.

Grandson Michael R. Mygrant took over the one remaining location in 1979, and is now general manager of 67 locations nationwide, making Mygrant Glass Co., Inc. the largest independent wholesale distributor of auto glass in the United States.

Fueling both divisions&mdashide from the construction boom--was the 1980 acquisition of Interstate Glass of South Bend, Indiana, for $3.6 million.

In 1981 ownership of Westmoreland was purchased by Dave Grossman, according to the National Westmoreland Glass Collectors Club.

It all began in 1982, as A Art World Wide Glass was born from working out of a truck installing auto glass.

On May 21, 1984, the Westmoreland Glass Company closed its doors just a few years shy of its 100 year anniversary.

In 1986, Gary met his future wife & business partner, Bev, who is now the head of the Accounting Department.

In the early 1990’s, Glass Distributors added a fully computerized automated cutting machine to keep up with its growing fabrication business.

However, Apogee is perhaps better known for its 20-year-old Commercial Construction Division, which garnered $248 million in 1993 revenues.