The slowing housing market hasn’t showed up yet at Mission Viejo Glass Inc.
“We’re swamped right now,” said Jim Byrne, who owns the 32-year-old company along with wife Karen Byrne.
Mission Viejo Glass makes and installs glass for showers, windows, custom mirrors, doors, tabletops and other household uses. It also does some automotive work, including classic cars and hot rods.
The company won the small business honor at the Nov. 16 Family Owned Business awards luncheon put on by the Business Journal and California State University, Fullerton’s Family Business Council.
Demand, driven in part by a television advertising push, has boosted business in the past five years. It also had led to expansion plans for Mission Viejo Glass, which has its headquarters just off Crown Valley Parkway,not in Mission Viejo,but in Laguna Niguel.
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A store is set to open in Rancho Santa Margarita next month. The plan is to move about five or six of the company’s 36 employees to the store.
More stores aren’t out of the question, Byrne said.
There has been a shift in the company’s customer base as of late, due to the changing housing market.
When home sales slow, the company’s remodeling work picks up, which is the case now, Byrne said. In a stronger market, home construction work grabs most of the business.
“There’s never really a down time” in the business, Byrne said.
The Byrne family took over the company in 2001, when the original owners retired. Karen had worked there for 12 years before that, handling accounting. Jim ran Byrne Construction, which specializes in remodeling, room additions and custom homes.
The prior owner “knew that I knew how to run a business, and that Karen could run the bookkeeping side of things. It was an easy transition,” he said.
There was one big transition: adding more Byrnes to the company.
“When we did the buyout, we decided that our sons,who worked for the construction company,and their wives would come along,” Byrne said.
Matt Byrne supervises the company’s retrofit window division. Brian Byrne leads up the construction division. Their wives, Kristan and Allison, manage the office.
“They work hard. They see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Jim Byrne said, referring to their eventual ownership.
Plans are in place to transfer the business to the children sometime in the future.
“I’m 56, so maybe in four years,” Byrne said. “But it’s so much fun now. When it’s no longer fun then I’ll walk away, but I’m not sure when that will happen.”
Increased recognition is part of the fun. Local television advertising has led to a big boost in business, according to Byrne. He said he estimates that 35% of the company’s revenue is from the ads.
“If you don’t advertise, it’s like blinking in the dark,” he said.
The company recently gave glass fencing and mirrors to a local family on “Extreme Home Makeover.” It’s one of several charitable causes that Mission Viejo Glass has given to, including Habitat for Humanity and the Boy Scouts and Eagle Scouts.
Those expecting to see family squabbling might be disappointed, Byrne said.
“People always say, ‘Don’t you argue?’ But we really don’t. (The family) all works hard, and we all have fun,” he said.
The family atmosphere extends to all employees, Byrne said. A large part of the company has been there for more than 20 years. Two have been there more than 30 years.
An “Employee of the Year” award chosen by all the employees has seen co-workers sent on all-expense-paid trips to the Super Bowl and the Daytona 500. n
