Prestige Glass International Inc.: company of the year (16-50 employees).

Necessity is indeed the mother of invention. Just ask Robert Jackson. An economic downturn, he would say, is no excuse to give up.

For Jackson, it is an opportunity to innovate and expand into something better.

When Jackson, a skilled glassmaker, came to Elliot Lake in the 1970s, he found a city booming with enterprise and brimming with promise.

Within 10 years, Elliot Lake was facing a serious exodus of people and business. When the mines began to close in the late 1980s, Jackson believed he was in danger of losing everything he had built.

Instead, he persevered and found a niche market. Within a decade, he had transformed his home-based business into a fully integrated international manufacturer of glass products, and names the Canadian Country Music Awards and Pepsi Cola among its clients.

"We found ourselves with a commercial glass business, but with no commercial businesses," recalls Jackson, the owner and president of Prestige Glass International.

Jackson, originally from Haliburton, Ont., came to Elliot Lake to help his brothers who were also in the glass business. Working previously in residential and commercial glazing, as well as windshield replacements, Jackson set out to apply his skills. The brothers found work designing and installing glass in buildings, such as schools, hospitals and stores, all over the city. The mining boom, he says, helped keep construction on an upward trend. After some of the closures, such contracts began to dry up. Jackson's first big break, he says, came when he designed a glass pulpit for an Elliot Lake church.

The congregation was so impressed by the workmanship Jackson put into it, that he took the idea for a test run.

Advertising to religious organizations through a church publication in the United States, Jackson says he was overwhelmed with the deluge of calls he received, asking him to make more pulpits and other glass religious items. Since then, religious items to the U.S. have represented a good chunk of their market.

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At the time, says Jackson, there was no company in Canada directly involved in the specialized glass and crystal etching market. Seeing an opportunity, Jackson entered the market and aggressively began to find a niche for himself in designing religious products, as well as glass recognition and promotional items, like trophies and awards for corporations and other organizations. As competitors inevitably came into the market, Jackson began to hone his edge. Avoiding contracting out his work--as is common in the industry--Jackson built a facility that was fully integrated.

The company manufactures its own glass and crystal pieces and does all the designing and etch work itself, without reliance on outside suppliers. Having all the items inhouse, says Jackson, has had tremendous advantages. He has been able to minimize delivery time to clients because he does not have to wait for the work to be done by contractors and items can be modified right at the facility. Three- to four-week waiting periods, common to other glassmakers, were cut down completely.

Other glass companies have a hard time deviating from their catalogue because of their reliance on outside suppliers.

On the dollars and cents side, Jackson has also been able to maintain low prices and higher profits because he cuts out the middleman and purchases his glass directly from the manufacturer and stockpiles it in his plant.

Low prices have allowed him to capitalize on opportunities he would otherwise not have access to. Prestige Glass was able to get a contract from IBM to produce their corporate awards. Their low price, combined with a quality product, undercut other more established U.S. glass manufacturers. IBM has said they will continue to use Prestige for any future awards.

A strategic alliance with Rayzist Corp. allows access to the U.S. market.

By 1995, demand for their work exceeded their ability to produce and Jackson purchased a steel-manufacturing facility, which had to be expanded again in 1998 and once again in 1999. Jackson has also left a definite mark on Elliot Lake through the creation of 48 full-time production and administrative jobs at his facility, with sales of $2.7 million last year.

Jackson's vision and ability to recover under adverse conditions did not go unnoticed in the wider world, however. In 1990, at the age of 29, Jackson was recognized as "Young Entrepreneur of the Year" by the federal Business Development Bank. Prestige Glass was also awarded Northern Ontario Business Awards' Company of the Year Award in 1998.

Sales, he says, have become so plentiful that Prestige Glass sells glass blanks--raw glass with no etchings--to its own competitors.

Staying ahead of the game, says Jackson, involves constant investment in the newest technology. Using cutting-edge machinery, the company has now expanded into glass consumer items for the RCMP and Canadian Geographic.

By Joseph Quesnel 

Northern Ontario Business