UGC Closes Ohio Branch
October 12, 2010

Louisville, Ky.-based United Glass Corp. (UGC) closed the Columbus, Ohio, operations of Mid Ohio Tempering (MTO), effective yesterday. Company chairman and chief executive officer Lawrence O'Connell said the decision to close MTO was made to improve the operating efficiencies of all UGC branches and to allow more capacity out of the larger facilities. About 40 employees were affected by the closure.

"We decided some time ago that to survive the economic downturn we'd have to improve our efficiencies," O'Connell told USGNN.com™. "So, we made the decision to close MTO, which was a small shop that really only handled specialty work such as polishing, edging, beveling, hole drilling, etc."

O'Connell added, "The response from customers so far has been positive, because they would prefer to have their orders come in on one truck." He explained that previously customers in the Columbus region were serviced with a combination of partial services from that facility as well as one of the other larger facilities. Customers' orders will now be filled from one of the major facilities with a single truck delivery.

The MTO equipment will be going to the company's locations in Atlanta, Michigan and Pittsburgh, which will allow those branches to expand their value-added production capabilities.

"Making it easier for our customers in that region to do business with us, and increasing capabilities at the Michigan, Pittsburgh and Atlanta facilities will only improve the UGC operations and allow us to meet the needs of our customer base," said O'Connell. "In theses troubling times that our industry and customers are facing it is imperative that quality, pricing and timeliness of deliveries be as efficient as possible."

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