Greg Wingert took the time to hear out the Mater Dei High School guidance counselor’s push for college, but the senior’s mind was already set on joining the family business.
“I kept telling her, ‘No, I’m going to work for my dad, and yes, I’m sure I’m going to want to do it forever—it’s wonderful.’ And here I am, 40 years later,” said Wingert, now the owner of Anaheim Glass Inc. “I enjoy my job nine and a half days out of 10.”
Yet there are no plans for his three children to follow in his footsteps.
“I kind of steered them away from the business because it’s changed so much,” Wingert said. “Back in the day, we were the only glass shop in Anaheim, and now there’s all these guys doing it out of their garage.”
Mr. Fixit
His grandfather Nick Wingert started the business in 1945 after arriving from Omaha, Neb. by freight train. He opened a wrecking yard in Long Beach with his brother, and after getting injured, set up shop in Anaheim, selling auto parts and windshields. Glass eventually prevailed.
“My grandpa was Mr. Fixit,” he said. “They used to say, ‘If Nick can’t fix it, you might as well throw it away … I had a shop uniform and was working here since I was 10 years old. After school, I just wanted to come here and hang out. He used to teach me how to do projects and work on things.”
Anaheim Glass was also where his father, Jim, worked until he passed the baton on to Greg in 1998.
“He’s 80 years old, and he still stops by every day, giving the guys a hard time and teasing them,” Wingert said.
The Money Trail
He expanded the business from auto and residential glass replacement to servicing commercial accounts, including Disneyland Resort, Honda Center, Angel Stadium of Anaheim, Anaheim Convention Center and local hotels and restaurant chains.
“We’re kind of going where the money is,” Wingert said, explaining that the diversification has also helped the company survive economic downturns because hotels and other customer-facing businesses “still have to replace that broken mirror or sliding glass door if they want to rent you that $400-a-night room.”
The Great Recession also nudged him to merge operations in 2010 with Brea-based Brundige Glass, another long-standing family-owned business.
Future Thinking
“Everyone was talking about the economy, and I was becoming somewhat concerned,” Wingert said. “I started meeting once a week with a group of Christian businessmen—Christian Business Men’s Connection of OC. We’d talk about different business strategies and what we can do to build our business without getting swallowed up by somebody. Some of my mentors recommended that I buy another company to get their book of business.”
Competitor Brundige Glass appeared to be the right fit. The founder’s son, Tim Brundige, and Wingert already “talked all the time and shared business secrets.” They also “borrowed each other’s employees” when a bigger job would come along.
“After long consideration and lots of prayer, I asked him if he would consider merging the companies, make the same money he was making, and do outside sales—which he loves to do—and have no headaches,” Wingert said. “I thought he’d fall over in his chair, but he said yes. We merged [fleets] and put everything here in one shop. We also kept all workers.”
Anaheim Glass employs 10 at its 10,000-square-foot facility. Wingert said he’ll finish the year with $1.5 million in revenue—the company’s best yet.
Future success will include wooing digital-native millennials, some of whom are now buying homes and raising families.
“We don’t want to be a stagnant, 70-year-old company who’s depending on the good old boys coming in,” he said. “Customers now communicate via computer or texting. Money we spend on advertising goes to Yelp and Google.”
