Major Project Brings Competitors Together

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Sometimes, the best business strategy is consorting with the competition. For two B.C. glass manufacturing companies more familiar with competing for contracts than working together, partnership was the only way to bid for some Olympic-related business.

Kamloops-based Inland Glass and Aluminum and Burnaby's Advanced Glazing Systems were offered the opportunity to bid on the contract to manufacture and install the glass walls on the $615 million Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre expansion, but the work was too much for either one of the companies to handle alone. Thinking creatively, the two businesses created a partnership and submitted what ended up being the winning bid for the prestigious project.

"We were looking at the project, but we realized the size of it would have really taxed our facilities if we took it on," said Frank Luciani, president of Inland Glass. "We came up with the idea of going to our competitor in B.C. who was in a similar boat." Luciani said the request for proposals to make the glass walls was garnering international attention, and without a partner to help with the work, the $23-million contract could have gone to a company outside the province -- a result Luciani was hoping to prevent.

When Arthur Chan, general manager of Advanced Glazing Systems, saw the size of the convention centre expansion, he realized it was too large for his company to manage. The project required designing, manufacturing and installing 110,000 square feet of very expensive glass chosen by the architect because it will look like crystal. "It was too big for either one of us," he said. "We would have had to say goodbye to the rest of our customers for most of a year, and that was not sensible."

It was the first time the company had partnered with another glass manufacturer on a project and it took some time to work out. Each facility will perform 50 per cent of the job, and the two companies are sharing the administrative and project management work.

"It's a unique, challenging project," Luciani said. "It is going to be a renowned building and we're really pleased to be part of a project of this stature. It's an exciting time for us." Chan said his company would partner with a competitor again to bid on larger projects. "You have to have trust in each other, and you have to have an equal partnership," Chan said. "But it's good to share the glory and the burden, too."

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