Custom Glass Products
The Schofield-based insulated glass company, Custom Glass Products was started in 1971, by Vic and Ann Reeder. The Reeders had come to Central Wisconsin several years earlier, when Vic left his job at 3M in Chicago to manage the County's first specialty glass producer.
Multipane Industries
In 1967, Multipane Industries, one of the nation's leading insulated glass producers opened a factory in Wausau. The Philadelphia-based glass manufacturer opened the facility in part due to the demand for specialty glass from the many window manufacturers in the region. In particular, the Wausau wood window company Crestline had courted Multipane, and convinced them that Marathon County would be a great candidate to set up a successful specialty glass facility.
^ In the 1960s, the Wausau Area Chamber of Commerce had a program where individuals could suggest new industries to bring to the area. Here Alvin T. Stolen Jr. of the Chamber presented Philip Nikolai with a check for $100, after he made a suggestion that eventually brought Multipane Inc. to Marathon County. Also present is Multipane executive vice present David Diamond and Wausau Mayor John Kannenberg.
Multipane Industries' Wausau factory lasted only four years. In 1971, they decided to pull out of Central Wisconsin, and sold the factory on Cleveland Avenue to Crestline.
Custom Glass Products
In 1971, with the closure of Multipane's Wausau facility, the company's former General Manager, Vic Reeder, decided start a new independant glass company. And so around the time Multipane was closing, Vic and his wife Ann established their new business, which they called Custom Glass Products.
Initially, CGP was operating out of the Reeder home:
"We had a very modest beginning. My wife and I made the very first unit on our kitchen table ... At that time, everything was done by hand including the washing of the glass."
-Vic Reeder quoted a Wausau Daily Herald article (Aug 27, 1996), highlighting the company for it's 25th anniversary
But as the Reeders expanded to hire a few people to help, they moved the operations into a a small 5,000 square foot facility they rented in Weston. Before long they outgrew that rented space on Ross Avenue as well. And in 1977, they built their own facilities in Weston.
And they would need the space, as there was more than enough business to keep CGP busy supplying insulated glass to the many window manufacturers in the Window Alley of Wisconsin.
Insulated Glass
In the increasingly energy-conscious environment of the 1970s, having windows with double (and later triple or more) panes of glass was becoming an industry standard. Having double glazed (double paned) windows created a pocket of air or gas between the window panes--which drastically reduced the transfer of heat, to keep the inside of a building cooler or warmer (depending on the season and needs of the building). So for example, on a hot summer day, the outside heat would not simply be able to get inside a building by heating up the single layer of glass--and instead it would have to heat up one layer of glass, then the inside pocket of air, then the inside layer of glass. And the thermal barrier provided by an insulating glass system also helps reduce the build up of condensation, caused by an imbalance of heat on a single surface by separating the warm and cool panes of glass.
[insulated glass example]
And this insulated glass was the main product of the Reeders and CGP. The company did not necessarily fabricate whole windows as other window companies were doing, but rather they focused on providing specialty glass to other projects.
But, as new developments in window glass emerged in the industry, CGP has expanded to provide these new specialty glass services as well. Maybe the most important of these is low-E coating. When sprayed on a layer of glass, Low-E Coating reflects much of the ultraviolet and heat carried in sunlight away from a building, while letting the viable spectrum through the window to light the inside of the building. Combined with insulated glass, this makes highly efficient windows.
[the dudley building as an example of low-e coating?]
And today Custom Glass Products not only provides specialty glass for custom windows, but also other components for windows and doors. For example, inserts for doors and window grilles separate glass panes to change the its appearance...
[window grilles example?]
A New Generation at CGP
By the start of the 1990s, Custom Glass Products had continued to grow. The company developed new products and services, and moved into new and bigger facilities that allowed them to provide them.
^ The Weston home of Custom Glass Products, located on Venture Circle.[Temp Picture]
Throughout this growth, CGP continued to be a family company. During the 1980s, the three Reeder sons (and a son-in-law) expressed interest in working at CGP, and before long the new generation of Reeders were taking the reins of the company from their parents.
In 1988, brothers Steve and Mike Reeder--along with Dave Hibbard--opened a new branch of Custom Glass Products in North Carolina. This new branch of the company opened up new markets on the east coast, west through the south coast to Texas.
^ The Salisbury, North Carolina facilities of Custom Glass Products. [Also temp image]
Meanwhile Eric Reeder ended up taking over the Weston facilities, which has continued the tradition of providing quality insulated glass and products to the people of Central Wisconsin.