Kelman Bottles LLC

Dead factories that have been through floods and bankruptcy seldom get a second change at prosperity. Glenshaw Glass Co., founded in 1895 and shuttered in 2004, has broken the mold.

The landmark business on Route 8 in Shaler is alive again, employing about 100 people who make wine bottles for clients as far away as California. With three shifts working round the clock, Glenshaw Glass os producing as many as 350,000 bottles a day.

“Nobody thought it could be done, but we’re up for the challenge,” said William Kelman, 39, new owner of the venerable company.

One morning this week, as Mr. Kelman strolled through his factory, he said he expected enough orders during the day to fill 11 tractor-trailers. Dawn Dietz, his chief aide, looked up from her computer and told him business was so brisk that 14 trucks would be needed.

Mr. Kelman reopened Glenshaw Glass Jan. 10, restarting one of the plant’s four furnaces after an arduous and expensive renovation.

“Here is a guy who did it all on his own. He didn’t ask for any government assistance or money,” Shaler Manager Tim Rogers said.

Mr. Kelman said he hoped to restart two more furnaces before the end of the year. For the next phase of the factory’s revival, his advisors at Enterprise Bank said, Glenshaw Glass will pursue low-interest government loans or other publicly sponsored programs.

Restarting a furnace is a $5 million to $10 million undertaking, Mr. Kelman said.

He envisions Glenshaw Glass building on its business with winemakers and obtaining contracts to make wide-mouthed bottles for products such as spaghetti sauce.

Such optimism would have been unheard of two years ago, when Glenshaw Glass was in disarray. Rains from Hurricane Ivan had flooded the plant. Soon after, a worker died in an industrial accident. Bankruptcy followed.

Mr. Kelman did not set out to revive Glenshaw Glass, but that’s how it turned out.

Born in Scotland and educated in Europe and Brazil, he landed in Pittsburgh in 1990. Mr. Kelman followed his father, who was in the steel fabrication business. He discovered the potential of the glass industry almost by accident.

Mr. Kelman agreed to by Glenshaw Glass during a hectic weekend in July 2005, never having seen the inside of the factory. He had recently acquired the idled L. E. Smith Glass Co., a Westmoreland County plant that produced handmade decorative goods for retail outlets.

In the beginning, Mr. Kelman said, he was looking for a real estate investment and little else. Glenshaw Glass covers 25 acres. He said he could have done nothing with the plant and still made money.

“I could have liquidated the assets and made a nice, safe profit,” he said.

But even in its mothballed state, Glenshaw Glass was getting calls from winemakers, brewers and soda pop manufactures who needed bottles.

Various glass plants had folded during the first half of the decade. Natural gas prices, which had soared and contributed to the glass industry’s decline, came back down.

With demand up and utility costs down, Mr. Kelman saw an opportunity he had not expected. He decided to restart Glenshaw Glass, a decision he is happy with.

“I’ve read that when you find out what you like to do, you’ll never work another day,” Mr. Kelman said.

Of the hundred or so people on his payroll, about 60 had worked for the old Glenshaw Glass before it closed in 2004.

Jim Schreiber, who runs the hearth and bottle machines, is from a family that grew up with the company. His grandfather worked at Glenshaw Glass for 30 years and his father for 40 years. Mr. Schreiber was in his 31st year with Glenshaw Glass when it folded.

He landed on his feet, getting a job with Westinghouse. But he decided to return to Glenshaw Glass as it maneuvered toward a reopening. “I said, ‘I’ll take a leap of faith and come back.’.”

The old Glenshaw Glass employed about 300, but it will not approach that level in its second run, even if more furnaces reopen, Mr. Kelman said.

“I think it was overstaffed before,” he said.

The old plant was unionized. The revived Glenshaw Glass is not. But those who got their job back are not complaining.

John Lilley, production manager, had been in the glass business for 35 years, six at Glenshaw, when the company closed. He moved to North Carolina to work in a glass plant but did not care for it. He said the opportunity to return to Glenshaw Glass was a bit of good fortune he did not expect.

“A lot of us were at least 20-year veterans of the glass business. It’s all we know,” he said.

‘Glenshaw Glass Breaks Mold’