Binswanger's Glad to be 'Stand-alone Organization,' Carrillo Says
January 9, 2012

By Sahely Mukerji, smukerji@glass.com

Grey Mountain Partners of Boulder, Colo., acquired Binswanger Enterprises LLC of Memphis, Tenn., recently. USGNN.com™ talked to Arturo Carrillo, president and CEO of Binswanger Glass, about the company and its future trajectory. Below are excerpts.

USGNN.com: What led to the acquisition?

AC: Grey Mountain, as many private equity firms, likes to invest in business where it sees good potential for growth.

USGNN.com: Why Grey Mountain?

AC: [Former parent company of Binswanger] Sun Capital chose Grey Mountain Partners from two other bidders. We were not involved in that. Management of Binswanger has had a relation with Grey Mountain since Grey Mountain was one of the bidders trying to buy Vitro America.

USGNN.com: What kind of changes will Binswanger go through now that it's been acquired?

AC: In the last few months, Binswanger has become a standalone organization, something which it has not been in at least 20 years. So, Binswanger has created its own back office such as accounting, IT, payroll and human resources departments. In the future as it prepares for growth it will grow its operations, marketing and sales departments.

USGNN.com: Does Binswanger plan to keep architectural, distribution and auto divisions' services all functioning?

AC: There are no immediate plans to shift our product mix. This mix has allowed us to be fairly diversified as different segments grow and contract.

USGNN.com: What are you hearing from your employees and customers?

AC: Employees, customers and vendors are very excited. They all recognize how being standalone will allow us greater focus to grow and improve our business.

USGNN.com: What do you see as the biggest opportunity for the company in this challenging economy?

AC: Stabilization of housing prices. We're starting to see that housing prices have stabilized in the last couple of months, decline has slowed, and we hope that the growth continues in 2012-2013. We're looking at a four- five-year business plan, not one-year business plan.

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