Now in his 10th year owning Ridgefield Glass, which dates to 1974 and which cut the ribbon on a new showroom this month, John Petchonka dodged the shuttering effects of the recession through adaptation and managed to expand. He figures 66 percent to 75 percent of company business is with contractors. The remaining business is with private homeowners.
- John Petchonka in the new Ridgefield Glass showroom.
The 2,000-square-foot showroom at 159 Danbury Road, Ridgefield, this month began displaying new products, including glass showers that effectively double the size of smaller, second bathrooms by replacing shower curtains with walls of glass. Formerly, most frameless glass shower doors swung open, making them unsuitable for small bathrooms. Ridgefield Glass now sells a “frameless slider” that, per its name, does not swing out. Petchonka said displaying it is, “One of the reasons for the move.”
Petchonka was three years into ownership in 2008 when, as he recently put it, “All hell hit and there was a market drop in Ridgefield.”
Born in New York City, Petchonka, 60 and a scientist by education and trade, reacted to the downturn by expanding his catchment area. He turned his gaze south.
From his old Ridgefield Glass address at 4 Danbury Road, Petchonka began marketing broadly in southern Fairfield County and specifically in Fairfield, Darien and Greenwich. Now comes the new showroom, replacing what he termed, “basically a converted house” that nonetheless served the company for 20 years. There was a public opening at the new address June 13 followed by the ribbon-cutting June 23.
Petchonka is a Manhattan College-trained chemical engineer who in his former business life designed and built the NutraSweet plant in Athens, Ga., and worked on developing Viagra for Pfizer, originally as a heart aid ”“ the beating, pumping heart, not the Valentine/twin-bathtub variety. A half-hour conversation ”” mainly to speak about his relocation ”” addressed the properties of glass ”” “basically a solid, but you can enhance its properties with rapid heating and quenching: ”” and Viagra “It was a failed heart drug, but the patients kept coming back asking for more. I was not astute enough to buy stock in Pfizer.” (The drug is still used to treat some forms of hypertension.)
Ridgefield Glass also runs a warehouse/fabrication facility called Elegance in Glass at 12 Backus Ave. in Danbury. It was planned as a second showroom, but its 2009 opening coincided with six months of nearby road work that Petchonka said doomed it for that purpose. Adapting, the building now has 11 employees in a chain of receiving materials and fabricating product.
“Most showers use clamps or metal headers,” he said. “We do it with a lot less metal. It”™s more art than science and involves a couple of trade secrets. As far as I know we are unique in this area; there may be three others doing it this way nationally.”
Besides its Ultra Frameless Shower product, the company also sells the full array of glass products such as mirrors, replacement and antique glass, storm doors and patio sliders. Its commercial-oriented applications include insulated glass ”” “There is warm-climate and cold-climate glass today,” Petchonka said ”” architectural glass, specialty glass enclosures and the glass for commercial buildings. It also markets to and works for clients in Westchester County.
Petchonka said a few things were broken in the move, answering a must-ask question of a glass company recently in transit. “Nothing really to mention,” he said. “We have really good people.”
