Safelite - History

History

In 1947 Bud Glassman and Art Lankin opened Service Auto Glass in Wichita, Kansas. Four years later, Safelite Glass Corporation was first formed through Glassman and Lankin deciding to combine Service Auto Glass with their newly established flat laminated glass manufacturing plant, which had also opened in Wichita. This model allowed the company to both install and produce laminated glass.

The business followed this model for the next decade and a half, and in 1964 Safelite opened their first dedicated installation centre, on the end of the existing manufacturing plant in Wichita. A Wichita Windshield plants opened in 1967, before Royal Industries acquired both Service Auto Glass and Safelite Glass Corp., creating the Safelite Division of Royal Industries the following year. In 1969, construction began for a new windshield manufacturing plant in Enfield, N.C, with the company's expansion continuing three years later, when the Safelite Glass Company of Denver (a manufacturer of flat automotive, architectural and safety glass) was acquired.

In 1977 the company's name was shortened from Safelite Division of Royal Industries to merely Safelite Industries when Lear Siegler acquired Royal Industries, and a new lamination building was constructed in Wichita, which combined operations from Colorado and Kansas in one location.

1987 saw Safelife's name change again - Forstman Little and Company of Manhattan, N.Y. took over, and changed the company name to Safelite Glass Corp.

The 1990s brought with them some massive changes, not least of all when the Safelite corporate headquarters were moved to Columbus, Ohio in 1990. A year later, the organisation opened their first National Referral Phone Center in Columbus, before manufacturing their one-millionth windshield in 1992. The same year, the organisation's Wichita glass production facility ceased production of architectural glass to concentrate fully on the automotive segment. 1994 saw Safelite open a second phone center in Dublin, Ohio (a third center was opened in nearby Columbus in 1996, and both centers eventually moved there), while 1995 saw somewhat of a technical milestone, when Safelite developed and patented a method for the duplication of windshield contour/size while the glass is still in the vehicle. Shortly afterwards Safelite expanded its corporate headquarters to include a new Network Operations Center, which coordinated the efforts of more than 30,000 subcontracting glass shops nationwide to accommodate its customers.

During Safelite's 50th year of existence in 1997, the company merged with Chicago-based Vistar Auto Glass, with Vistar's owner Belron International becoming a minority shareholder in the company. The move was a significant one, as the group now had retail representation in all 50 states. A new wholesale sales division (Service AutoGlass) was launched in 1998, and the Enfield distribution center was expanded the following years.

By the new millennium, Safelite's reach was at an all-time high and it was the largest privately owned automotive glass company in America.

In 2003 a new corporate structure was unveiled, which aimed to better reflect the focus of the individual business units that were supported by the company. As such, Safelite Group Inc. became Safelite's parent company, vehicle glass products and services came under the umbrella of Safelite Fulfillment Inc., Safelite Solutions LLC dealt with property and casualty claims management solutions, while Safelite Glass Corp. exclusively looked after windshield manufacturing and distribution operations.

In 2007 Belron announced plans to re-acquire Safelite Group Inc, and subsequently combined Safelite with their existing entity, Belron US. Since then, Safelite Solutions have expanded their contact center in Columbus, Ohio, Safelite Glass Corp opened a 282,000 sq. ft. eco-friendly distribution center in Ontario, California which supports vehicle glass distribution to states west of the Mississippi River. In 2010 a 357,000 sq. ft. distribution center (the company's largest) opened in Braselton, Georgia. This center services states east of the Mississippi River.