Omni Glass & Paint’s Neenah location celebrates 10 years

Rich Palzewic

Staff

November 18, 2024

NEENAH – Omni Glass & Paint – a full-service contractor specializing in residential and commercial glass, architectural panels, specialty and OEM glass, as well as commercial and industrial painting – recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of its Neenah location.

“We opened the facility with the intent of creating synergies, providing products to our divisions and then additionally, to provide better products, better service to our OEM (original equipment manufacturer), military and architectural customers,” Omni CEO David Miller said.

Another reason the Neenah plant was added 10 years ago, Miller said, was because Omni was losing market share.

“We didn’t want to lose our employees, and we had stepped out of auto glass, and we thought this was going to be an opportunity to grow our business and enhance the services we provide,” he said.

Though Miller said at the time of the expansion a decade ago “there was plenty of space,” that’s changed somewhat. 

“We are nearing capacity in Neenah,” he said. “We have ideas of adding potentially onto the building and if need be, procuring another facility.”

According to the company’s website (omnigp.com), Omni has a strong presence throughout Wisconsin and neighboring states.

Its portfolio includes homes, hospitals, banks, office buildings, terminals and technical schools.

The main office, warehouses and fabricating facilities are located in Oshkosh, complemented by satellite offices in Green Bay, Schofield and Milwaukee, in addition to the Neenah facility.

Ephraim Jacobson, plant manager for the Neenah facility, said the location originally started with three employees but is now up to about 30.

“When we first moved in and were buying equipment, we were still hand-cutting glass,” he said. “Now, the whole plant is CNC operated. It’s changed quite a bit, and we’ve expanded a lot over the years. We’ve transformed our operations from manual to software-driven processes.”

Jacobson said Omni is an ever-changing, growing business, and management doesn’t accept mediocrity.

“That’s with our employees, products and service,” he said. “We always strive to do our best.”

Employees come first

Many have heard the adage “the customer comes first,” but Miller said Omni has a slightly different approach.

“Of course, we deeply care about our customers and they are first – behind our employees,” he said. “It’s an employee-centric business, and our leaders like Ephraim are part of that. With putting our employees first, our customers benefit from that as well – that’s been a big part of our growth, and it snowballs. It’s a little unique because people – including me – were raised where the customer is always right and first. We have built our business basically based on putting our employees first.”

Miller said part of putting employees first is giving them time off for school activities for their kids – “even if it’s a show-and-tell at school.”

“Employees only have to communicate with their supervisor if something comes up with your family,” he said. “I think we do a great job as a corporation keeping our priorities in place by honoring our employees.”

A long history

Miller, who recently began his 45th year with the company, said he has personally seen the growth of the company.

“We started as Klein-Dickert Glass in 1967,” he said. “Four folks came up from Madison (to begin operations here). We started at the original facility in July of 1967 in Oshkosh and hired local laser technicians for our glass division and local painters.”

Miller said in addition to the 60,000-square-foot facility in Neenah, the company built a new 90,000-square-foot building in Oshkosh in 2008.

He said a business that combines glasswork and painting under one roof is fairly unique.

“I know of three such companies in the State of Wisconsin,” he said. “We are an offspring of one, and the other company was an offspring of our corporation.”

The glass side

As the name Omni Glass & Paint suggests, Miller said the company offers various services in the glass and paint industries.

With the glass division, he said Omni doesn’t manufacture the product on-site – that’s left up to other companies – but most everything else can be done at the facility.

“In Neenah, we have a large commercial glass division,” he said. “We buy raw annealed glass, and then we fabricate it, edge it, polish it and temper it. We have a tempering furnace.”

Miller said annealed glass is a type of glass that has been slowly cooled to reduce internal stress and make it stronger and more durable.

Omni, he said, also has a lamination oven.

“We have automated laminated glass cutters and water jets,” he said. “Again, we don’t manufacture the glass here, but we temper it and fabricate it. We serve military, fire, rescue and refuse on the OEM side. On the architectural side, we service large manufacturers, glass contractors, etc.”

Jacobson said Omni also installs glass.

“We have two full-time installers who install at a local fire truck manufacturer,” he said. “For other projects, we have actually gone out of state to install and train our end-user customers – we’re very capable of installing.”

Jacobson said Omni can also install glass commercially.

“We furnish glass wall systems and interior glass wall systems, so we edge, polish and temper these nine- or 10-foot glass walls that could fill an entire corporate facility,” he said. “There’s a lot of interior architectural glass we do.”

As one might expect, Miller said glass can be “very difficult to work with.”

“Obviously, it’s heavy, and before it’s tempered, it can crack easily,” he said. “You have to be very safe with it as far as handling it. We have safety meetings often.”

Miller said once glass is tempered, it’s easier to work with.

“If it does shatter, it will break into small, quarter-inch pieces instead,” he said.

Though Omni installs glass in military vehicles, fire trucks, etc., Jacobson said the company is not involved in regular vehicle glass installation.

“Our market has changed over the years,” he said. “As larger auto glass installers have come into the market, we’ve stepped away from that.”

The paint side

On the painting side of things, Miller said Omni does heavy industrial jobs.

“We do a lot of (painting) in the food industry, water/wastewater treatment plants, cheese plants, dairy, meat, etc.,” he said. “We do commercial hospitals, schools and office buildings. Typically, it’s larger jobs – we’ll do the interior and exterior of almost anything.”

Though Omni takes on larger, industrial jobs, Miller said that doesn’t mean they don’t use more traditional products.

“Paint brushes/rollers are still part of the application process,” he said.

Giving back

Having a handful of locations in Northeast Wisconsin, Miller said it’s an important aspect of Omni to be an active part of those communities.

The company, he said, has contributed to local initiatives, including the Boys & Girls Club of the Fox Valley, the GPS Education Partners program and St. Mary Catholic Schools’ Zephyrfest, Connect 5K, Future Neenah and Habitat for Humanity.

“Omni also sponsors local sports teams,” he said. “With Habitat for Humanity, we don’t only donate funds, but we also participate. I believe we painted its last two homes in Oshkosh. Omni performed all the work with volunteers, including myself. We’ve always given back, but as the company has grown, our giving back has grown exponentially. Giving back is extremely important to us.”