SPEAKERS
Sid Meadows, Host of The Trend Report
Vipul Bhagat, COO of Skyline Design 

Coach Sid Meadows: Welcome to this week's episode of The Trend Report. I'm glad you're joining us today for what I know is going to be a really, really informative and fun conversation with our guests today. Vipul, how are you today?

Vipul Bhagat: I am great. How are you?

 

Sid: I am doing awesome. I didn't really introduce you yet—I just said your first name. 

Please take a moment and introduce yourself and tell our listeners who you are and what you do.

Vipul: So, I am Vipul Bhagat. I am Chief Operating Officer of Skyline design. I have been with the company now for almost 29 years. In January, we're going to be 40 years old as a company. We're privately owned, and I am actually in the process of becoming one of the owners of the company with the long tenure that I've had. 

So, this is pretty much all that I know how to do! So I've decided I'm gonna keep doing it for the time being.

Sid: Well, congratulations to you. That's exciting—40 years old! That's also something to celebrate. What day is the actual 40th anniversary?

 

Vipul: It will be in January!

 

Sid: Great. So tell us a little bit about Skyline design. 

I was reading up on you guys just a little bit, and I want you to tell us a little about how you started and how you got to what the company is today.

 

Vipul: So when the company started, it was founded by Charles Rizzo and Nick Cordero. They still have a little bit of an active role, not necessarily in day-to-day operations, but they're certainly involved in the business financially, and they support me well, while I'm running it for them. 

They started the business in many different mediums, not just class. We're known as a glass company today—but when Nick and Charlie started the business back in the 80s, they were using sculpture art and the company was comprised of a lot of artists. We did a lot of hospitality and retail work. 

If you remember back to when the Luxor Hotel opened back in Las Vegas in the 90s, they had all of those gold leaf mummies and whatnot. Skyline did all of those—there was about 30 or 40 of them through the casino lobby. And that sums up all work that was done here then. 

It was all done by hand in our factory in Chicago made by artisans, with foam sculpted clay, hand-painted goldleaf. That's the kind of work that Charlie started with, and glass was one of the mediums along with that. 

Over the course of the last 25 years, we have shifted towards more and more glass. We tend to stay in the contract side of things—commercial or corporate. But as a glass manufacturer, our warehouse is full of artisans in their own right. 

My background is in architecture, so I'm not necessarily a finance guy or a management guy—I’ve learned everything here on the fly with Charlie and Nick as my mentors. So that's our gig.

 

Sid: I love the fact that every company has its roots in something, right?

We all started somewhere—especially companies that are celebrating 40+ years in business have a story. So I appreciate you sharing the story! The next time I walk through the Lux Hotel in Las Vegas, I'm gonna have a connection to that, and I think that's really, really unique. 

Let's talk for a minute about glass… Now, you're using glass as a broad term, but are you manufacturing writable glass, architectural glass, or other products? Give us a little bit more definition about the types of products that you sell:

 

Vipul: Sure! So like I said, about 25 years ago, we made the decision to go strictly in into the architectural glass field. We had a lot of artisans hand-making the decorative glass that we made back then. We still do some glass work by hand now, but that business just kept evolving and growing. 

We were doing super high-end, custom work for lobbies and hospitality projects, and that became more sophisticated as technology advanced. We were able to elevate how we work—so we started buying more and more glass fabrication equipment, mostly from Europe. So, it's some of the finest glass fabricating and decorating apparatuses that you can get. We've got a lot of stuff from Italy, Germany, and Switzerland. So there's a “melting pot of machines” in here that we've put our time and money into the trade and all the cool things that we do with glass. 

Out of that, we create glassboards and other vertical markets. We're in the process of a growth trend right now when it comes to doing glass work. The business of glassboards—that business has been growing. So in the last three years, I would say it's made up about 25 to 30% of our business, along with our custom architectural work.

Sid: That's excellent! So we know people need writable surfaces—you see them all over the place. I have one in my office! We love writable surfaces and to be able to visually see things. 

I think it's really interesting that 25-30% of your current volume is just glassboards. Where do you anticipate that growth going? What percentage are you trying to get to with the writable type materials?

Vipul: Actually, just a couple of years ago, only about 5% of our manufacturing was glassboards. I'm quite happy with where we are—I like to keep our company diverse, right? I don't want to have my hands in just one pot, necessarily. There's a lot of different business needs out there… 

Healthcare is a very strong market for us vertically—about 45% of our business. So we've grown that considerably, and we're pretty much the premier decorative glass provider for healthcare projects nationally. The glassboards are important in healthcare—glass is the only non porous surface material that you can get, and so that leads into hygiene, housekeeping, and keeping things clean. 

In today's world, especially over the last 2-3 years, we're all concerned about being around people. With or without masks, with our without vaccination—there's all kinds concerns. So we have to figure out how to make environments make sense and be usable. 

My feeling is I want to cover the whole world in glass. 

 

Sid: Of course! You’re a glass manufacturer—you should expect nothing less than for everything to be glass. We certainly in the last few years have redefined the word “cleanability” and the importance of something being cleaned easily and effectively. 

But I want to go back for just a second… You talked about the equipment you're using and going to Italy and to Europe to get machinery, which is not uncommon in our industry. Having worked for several manufacturers myself, I know there's a lot of German machinery and things of that nature there. 

Can you tell us about that investment and what that journey has been like in bringing in that equipment? Because you're based in Chicago—you're in a building that was built in the 1920s in a suburb. So I know there's had to be some interesting conversations about modern day machinery into a 1920s building.

 

Vipul: Yes, our building has been a lot of different things. It's been a bicycle company; we understand Sears used it as a warehouse (before Amazon existed and all the Amazon warehouses that are going up every white building with the blue stripe at the top right). 

So in the 100 years, it's been a lot of things. We are still in the city of Chicago, within the city limits, about 15 minutes away from the city. So that's kind of an important part—we see where our day-to-day work is going. 

We've had to adapt all the things that we do to fit in this building, and that's not easy, right? We have really big pieces of tempering equipment that can do 96 inch by 144 inch pieces of glass. So how do you get that size piece of glass into into a building? So we had to open up the side of the building and put in larger overhead doors and special cranes and forklifts—so that all that material can be brought in here safely. Safety is a huge part of our daily work. Guys that are working in the factory, we have over 60 of them now—they need to not get hurt. That's our priority. So bringing glass in here, it's been a challenge—but that's the cool part of being here. The challenges are what makes it fun.

 

Sid: Oh, in our industry, there are challenges that exist on all different levels every day. So, being in the Midwest, obviously, you have resources in West Michigan that a lot of other manufacturers tap into. Obviously your founders were in Chicago, and that's where you stayed. But what has it been like for you guys as it relates to sourcing materials in the upper Midwest?

 

Vipul: That is a great question. So the biggest thing that we buy is obviously raw glass. We don't make the glass; glass is made with sand, and that’s made at a facility in Pennsylvania. We work with Vitro architectural glass—they're one of the world's largest glass manufacturers in the world. They have been our provider for many, many years. We source our glass from a single source—most of our glass is a low iron product called Starfire. We like to maintain consistency.

 

Sid: Alright, so I have a couple of follow-up questions for you. 

So raw glass, meaning big sheets of glass, you're buying from Vitro in Pennsylvania, and they're shipping it to you. Then, you take it and transform it into your architectural product or your Glassware product. My first question is—can you explain low iron? What does that mean, and why is that important?

 

Vipul: Great question. So low iron for interior decorative purposes is really for color consistency. Normal glass, regular glass plate class has a green hue to it, as everyone knows. So when we do our work, which has a lot of color and and when we're back-painting for the whiteboards or digitally printing photographic images—that green will transfer through, because a lot of the work that we do is seen through the glass. You're looking at the clear surface of the piece of glass, and then the decoration or print is usually on the opposite side. With low-iron Starphire product, there's almost no green in it. The clarity is there. The optical clearness lets those colors be the real reds and blues and yellows, and that's an important part of the end product we deliver. So I would say 90% of the product that goes through here is low-iron Starphire glass, because of the nature of what we do.

 

Sid: Well, I think you explained that really well, for those people that didn't understand what low iron means. If you painted something cherry red that was on not low iron glass, it's going to be cherry red with the green tint…

 

Vipul: Which is brown! Not green. If you mix if you mix red and green together, I think you get brown.

 

Sid: Okay, that's more advanced knowledge!

 

Vipul: The firms that we work with out there—they're demanding exact color and accuracy. We have to do that; we've been doing that for a long time. We know how to fulfill those specific orders. 

 

Sid: I think one of the most interesting things about the the component of the commercial furniture industry that you're in—is how we've seen over the last 10-15 years how architects and designers are using glass in the building design and construction that we had not seen previously. 

For example, lining a wall with a pattern glass or painting, putting back-painted glass on a wall in a hallway around elevator banks and things of that nature. It's been really interesting to see how they're taking that medium glass and using it in the aesthetic features of the interior of a building. 

And you're responding to that with the right kind of product in real time, back-painted any color that you want. You've also got your custom designed architectural glass, and I noticed on your website—you have a host of designers that have designed patterns for you. So talk about that process with us.

 

Vipul: So you know, when you have a wall of clear glass, you have no privacy, right? Unless you're gonna put in what I would say is not the most beautiful blinds or shades… So we come in with a different methodology. 

Let's decorate that glass, let's put something on there that's bespoke, that's branded, that makes sense with the aesthetic, the space, the folks that are going to ultimately work in those spaces, right? We make the glass to fit the needs. Architects, designers and end-users. As far as our collaborative efforts, that's something that no other decorative glass company in the world has. We've spent the last 25 years really curating the architectural and design art world for some of the best designers. We're going out into Europe now, which is, I'm even surprised that we're able to do some of the things that we have. We're able to go to Europe and get some of these some of these folks that are not even famous here yet, and they will be right. So you've got Patricia Urquiola, who is now part of Hayworth. We had Patricia before then, and so we have a line of patterns from her. We have Shackleton and bangs out of Amsterdam; we have the Burlock brothers out of Paris, France. So having those kinds of collaborative efforts, they've taken us up a notch in what we can offer. 

 

Sid: One of the things that I get asked a lot about from our listeners… In fact, I got an email about it from from a listener the other day! To get our manufacturers that we interview to talk a little bit more about sustainability, the importance of sustainability, and maybe some steps that you're doing to help the environment. So, tell us what is your position on sustainability? Maybe you can share some of the unique things you guys are doing?

Vipul: Well, the biggest thing is that we're using glass as our medium—and glass is recyclable all the way around the world. It's not going to affect the environment in a negative way, so that's kind of the main point. Then, we focus on how we make the product here. We use paints that have no VOCs, they're water based, and we recycle all of the water that our equipment uses. We have studies done on our lighting in our facility, so that we're not wasting energy. 

Those are the kinds of things—and there's a whole slew of them—to keep things neat and clean for the environment. We could have an entire podcast just on the 100 things that we do here to maintain sustainability. 

Sid: Sure. So talk for just a minute specifically about recycling water in your warehouse. Tell us what water is used in your manufacturing process, and then how you're recycling it.

Vipul: So water is used in our paint department, obviously—water based paints that's fairly clean. But you know, once you use the water, it doesn't come back as pure water. There's other things in there from all of our fabrication equipment, like our polishing machine, our CNC routers, or waterjet machines all use water, and that water is recycled in a reclaiming system. This is something that not all glass fabrication companies have, so this was an additional investment that we put in right away. We didn't do it a year after we set up the equipment—we had the fabrication machines purchased, along with the other water recycling ones at the same time. 

So what happens is, there's media in the water—the paint, the the cerium oxide that mixes with the polishing compounds that we use, or just dirt. But all that stuff gets recycled out, and the filtration system removes the waste particles. Then, we can properly dispose of whether we recycle those particles or have somebody come pick it up. And we can reuse the water. So we make a conscious effort to make sure that we're not wasting.

Sid: So you've got a like a centrifuge machine. And yeah, it's exactly separates the chemicals and the paint and stuff and magically that it pushes out clean water… So what would happen if you were just disposing of the water? Like, where would it go? Just like go into the street and to the street? 

Vipul: I guess, yeah—it would be dumped in the sewers. 

Sid: Right. We know where that ends up likely in a river, or something like that

Vipul: Yes, it ends up where it shouldn't. 

Sid: What I think is so important about this is that you're using a natural resource in the manufacturing of your product. In some places in the world, water is very scarce, right? We also know what it's been like. I mean, I live in Texas and you know, we went 67 days without rain this year, and so it is a very precious resource. 

So you're taking it, you're using it in your manufacturing in multiple areas of your manufacturing, then you're cleaning it, and you're taking the debris out of it. Then you're taking that debris and you're recycling it as well. 

Are you having someone come pick up the debris to dispose of it properly? What happens to the water, then, now that you've got clean water again? Is it classified clean water? 

 

Vipul: We just keep reusing it. So separating the materials, and then that water is running through that centrifuge—that's what's cleaning it. And then there's a tank that it puts it back into those machines so they can use the water again. 

Because yeah, so we're bringing in very little additional, new water every day. Of course, the water evaporates over time, but we're not using brand new water every day. There's a tank that holds the dirty water, there's a tank while it goes through the centrifuge, and then there's a tank that holds the clean water that gets reused.

Sid: Okay, I really appreciate how you describe that, because I think it's important for our listeners to understand. It's hard when you either watch on YouTube or listen to this on a podcast, you truly understand the manufacturing process. But the way that you described it, I think is perfect. And I think Skyline is really addresses an important conversation as it relates to how we as an industry are contributing to a better environment. You're using limited water; you're recycling, reusing it, and you're only properly disposing of the little waste that comes from it. And it shows that as a leader in our industry, you are being a good steward of natural resources in our environment.

Vipul: That's very, very important to the founders, and it's very important to me. It's how I leave things for my kids and other people's kids and what they're gonna do with it. Hopefully, they'll have the wherewithal to continue art. I wish more people would do that with their leftover raw materials—our paints are not just thrown out, we have a methodology where we can clean it up, put it back in the can, and if they do need to be disposed, we can dispose of them properly. 

Another area where we look at is the yields on our glass sheets to address sustainability. So the glass sheets come in about 10-by-14 feet, approximately, and once they're optimized and cut from, there's always going to be leftovers. There's extra. So we like to keep as much as we can some of the big stuff, and then we can use it on projects. Then we use other, smaller pieces for samples, and then we recycle the rest of the glass.

We have a special company that then uses the excess for landscaping and roadwork. You can look up all kinds of screen uses for broken glass out there. So we try to use everything we can to the fullest, to its limits, before we dispose of it or have to get rid of anything. So there's very little left, by the time we do our process.

 

Sid: It's such an important conversation you're having—using absolutely 100% or as much as close to 100% of the product as you possibly can, because there was a time in our industry when we did the yield of the seeds of whether it was glass or plywood, and then we just tossed it in a bin. Somebody came by and picked it up and hauled it off. Now, you're using it to make other projects, you're using it to make samples with, and then what is left—what small component is left—you're recycling it because glass has lots of options for a second life. 

Vipul: So we separate that. We have a bin just for the small leftovers, and that gets hauled away separately. So that's a big part of our process we put in when we started fabricating about six years ago. 

So it wasn't like again, you know, like with the centrifuge, right? We didn't put it in after the fact like we thought of these things, hey, we're gonna have all of this class weights. What do we do with that? Where are we going to put that stuff? Are we just gonna throw it in the dumpster with everything else? We did the research when we ordered the equipment. It took a year to get it all, because it all has to be made, manufactured, shipped here, and set up. While we were waiting for it, we said, “let's figure out what we're gonna do with all of the leftovers and extras and what have you.” 

That was an important part of our business. One of the other things is that we're very transparent to everyone. We have a video on YouTube that we show of our factory. We invite people here—there's nothing to hide in our factory. We want to show you how we manufacture. We're very proud of what we do and how we do it, so we bring people in there all the time and give them tours. Of course, they're stylish, and we have a 150,000 square foot manufacturing space that's like a big laboratory. That's the fun part about me being here every day is I get to think about cool new things and how we develop different new products.

 

Sid: Oh, so it'd be really interesting to bring in somebody from the factory and ask them about how you guys brainstorm new ideas. 

Vipul: We have a product development person, and he gets text messages from the team on Sunday night— “Tomorrow, don't forget, I want to talk to you about this, that, and the other. And then I want to try this stuff.”

 

Sid: I've really enjoyed learning all about your business and what you guys are doing and how you're doing it. I think one of the keystones for me is domestic sourcing—so kudos to you, all of you and your commitment to sourcing domestically, because it's really easy and a lot more cost effective to go buy containers worth of glass from other parts of the world. 

 

Vipul: So I'd like to speak to the good relationships we have with our vendors. We consider them partners; we're very cognizant of their capabilities. So, when everyone around us was saying, “There's logistics issues, there's material issues out there in the world,”—we don't have those issues because we are ahead of it. 

I order well in advance. I hate to say it this way, but we pay our bills! We have good relationships, and sometimes the simplest things like that matter. We kind of stayed ahead of those sources issues, and we overcame those challenges. 

During COVID, in March of 2020, it was a hard year for us. We had some attrition in our staff, everybody was confused, didn't know what the world was like, but it took us about a year to regroup. Once the year got passed us, we were all back in the factory and figuring out how to keep going. And we did it RIGHT. 

So, for example—I'll speak to our lead times. You can follow us on all of our social media, we post a lot about how our lead times are still great. We're pretty much beating the competition; our pricing is very competitive. And then of course, our quality. That's 40 years of experience. We don't skip any steps here, and that's what matters.

Sid: When we think corporate America, we think big corporate America—but even in the corporate America, in the office furniture industry, we're still just people doing business with people. So that’s my biggest takeaway from what you’ve said—you have transparent partnerships, long-term relationships with your key vendors. You guys know each other, and if they need something, they're going to call you, and vice versa. You're not just a number, customer number, or something impersonal like that, right?

 

Vipul: Yeah. And my management team have personal relationships with these folks, too. We can reach out at any time for anything, and that's how we like to run our business. It's not as a business. And that's important to maintain those relationships. That's our reputation and our relationships is what's gotten us to the 40 years.

Sid: And I believe it's what's gonna help carry you through. 

Vipul: Yeah, I'm ready to get to 50 and 60 years. I’m right here for the long haul. 

We want to run the business this way. We're not trying to grow too big. We like what we have, we're very fortunate to be in the position that we are, and we want to maintain that and take care of our employees. Those are the folks that matter. We're close to 100 people on our staff, and the people that work here, they’re what the company is made of.

 

Sid: That's fantastic. So we have one final question for you, Vipul. 

Tell us just a little bit about your thoughts about the future of our industry. I know that’s a broad, big question…

 

Vipul: Oh, boy. That's another entire podcast! 

 

Sid: It really is, and I have a couple of upcoming episodes just focused on the future of the industry. But I'm just interested in general—what do you feel the future is like for our industry?

Vipul: So I'm going to use a word that doesn't fit well right now, because everybody gets kind of negative about it... But my goal is to make our company “recession proof.” Right? 

So how do we do that? It's through diversification. Like when you asked me earlier, “are you okay with your glass boards business being about 25%?” I'm actually very happy with that—but our business grows relatively across the board, and it stays at 25. 

We're in the health care markets. We're getting into more higher education, we're getting into E platforms that will be coming up soon. So we have some opportunities out there to be diverse in the kind of work that we do. We've been successful already, so anything we get more out of this is just icing on the cake.

 

Sid: The key takeaway for me is—and this applies to anybody that is joining us today—whether they're a manufacturer, regardless of their size, an independent rep, a dealer, a designer, this applies across the board in our industry..

And that is diversification. Diversify your offerings, diversify your services, diversify your products in order to get greater reach within your customer base. Whatever role you play  in our industry—diversifying is key. And, you know, I totally agree—we should have another podcast just about diversification, because it's so very important. So thank you for sharing that! 

It has been an absolute pleasure to have you join us today, Vipul. We actually met for the first time in real life at NeoCon! It was great to meet or see your showroom. It’s really good stuff that you guys are doing. 

If our community would like to get in touch with you, what is the best way for them to do that?

Vipul: So our website, obviously, the easiest and fastest way—www.skydesign.com  

That spelled just like it sounds. Our phone number is (888) 278-4660. So, we're here waiting for you!

Sid: That’s awesome. So in the show notes, we will drop a link to the website, phone number, and contact information for you, as well as your Linkedin profile, Vipul, and your Skyline LinkedIn profile. 

Again, thank you so much for being here! I appreciate it very much. So guys, go out there and make today GREAT! We'll see you again in a couple of weeks. 

Thanks for joining me today on this episode of the Trend Report Podcast. I'm glad that you're here. And I hope that you got some amazing value out of today's conversation. For more about our podcast and this episode and our other episodes, please visit my website at Syd meadows.com. We look forward to seeing you next week and go out there and make today great!