Salem Flat Glass News

HOAF Announces Salem as Their North American Sales Agent
Oldenzaal, The Netherlands November 6, 2008 – In a meeting held at HOAF’s headquarters, Salem Distributing Company has reached an agreement with HOAF to represent their line of laminating equipment for the US, Canada and Mexico.

Since 2001, HOAF Infrared Technology has been active in the field of autoclave free lamination with the HOAF HEATBOX®. The HOAF HEATBOX® is specially developed for this purpose and able to laminate safety glass with PVB, EVA and TPU. Float, tempered or bent glass can be laminated in this flexible kiln.

In addition to glass laminating, the HOAF HEATBOX® can be used for heat soaking of glass. The kiln is calibrated according to the EN 14179-2005 standard for the heat soak test of tempered glass.

Salem will immediately begin to follow-up on the numerous leads from Glastec, recently held in Dusseldorf, Germany. Ben Nieuwe Weme, Managing Director of HOAF Infrared Technology commented, “Salem has such a solid sales presence in the US and Canada that making the decision to have them represent us was very easy”.

“With the growth of laminated glass in the US, it has been difficult for small to mid-sized glass shops to enter into glass laminating due to the high cost of entry”, stated Howard Hanes, President of Salem. “Since the HOAF system does not require an expensive autoclave, we’ll see more and more shops get involved into this growth market.”

For additional information pertaining to the contents of this release, please contact Doug Mangus, Equipment Division Manager for Salem at (800) 234-1982 ext. 243.

WINSTON-SALEM, NC – Salem Distributing Company

A Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based, employee owned company has been recognized as the Carolina’s Chapter 2007 ESOP COMPANY OF THE YEAR. This annual award is sponsored by the National ESOP Association in Washington D.C. This year’s award continues to honor the success of employee owned businesses and their employee-owners whose growth and contributions exemplify the qualities and benefits of employee ownership. Winners of this year’s regional competition will vie for the national honor to be announced at the 30th Annual National ESOP Conference, May 15-16, 2007, in Washington, D.C.

Salem was founded in 1934 as the Siewer’s Sales Agency and began under its current name in 1972 following a change in ownership. Today, this 100% employee owned company is comprised of 4 distinct business units: Salem Flat Glass, Salem Vision, Salem Advanced Surfacing Materials and Salem Stone. It has successfully managed this complex relationship of industries, equipment and materials, to build a wealth of product and process knowledge unique to single company.

Only into the third year of 100% employee ownership, Salem has made great strides in a corporate restructuring initiative, which included reinventing its corporate culture to focus on empowering, inspiring and challenging its employee-owners. The bottom lines of this initiative were to better serve and grow its customer base. The results yielded an impressive 15 percent growth in the first half of 2006 that yielded Salem’s recognition as one of the Triad area’s FAST 50 a business growth competition sponsored by THE BUSINESS JOURNAL.

Michael Keeling, President of the ESOP Association stated at the presentation, “Salem, (Distributing Company) based in the furniture capital of the world, has been able to diversify in a way to combat the negative effects of off-shore imports. It is the ESOP spirit that has enabled them to grow and succeed despite market adversities. Salem is clearly a vibrant company that is poised for continued growth in the global economy in which they participate.”