Vic Williams: from Liverpool to Glaverbel

Vic Williams has retired from his position as Company Secretary of Glaverbel (UK) Ltd. Although best known as a representative of the Belgian glass manufacturer since 1990, people with longer memories will know his career in the industry has been much longer. In fact it stretches all the way back to 1959.

He grew up in Liverpool, which provides a clue as to how his career began. Vic attended the Liverpool Institute with Paul McCartney and George Harrison, and went on to play a part in the area’s other famous export – glass – for Pilkington. He joined the then Pilkington Brothers in November 1959 as an office boy at the Liverpool sales office.

Vic remembers Sir Alastair Pilkington as a talented young engineer. He wasn’t a member of the family of course, but he did invent the float process in 1952.

Vic still has his Pilkington price book and numerous souvenirs from the early days of float glass. ‘It’s good but it’s still not got the quality of plate and it won’t catch on,’ was a customer’s comment, he recalls. He also remembers that Pilkington’s decision to license the float process surprised many in the company.

‘Being an altruistic family, they saw it as their place to pass on the technology to the benefit of all. It hurt them when Guardian used it without license. One of my managers said that the people there weren’t brought up properly.’

Out on his own

Vic left Pilkington, returned, and was made redundant in the late ’60s. Deciding that he liked the industry, he joined glass importer Mark Abrahams. ‘The founder had come from Poland and knew no English but knew how to glaze a window,’ he recalls. Vic then started his own business, manufacturing specialist sealed units, and later sold toughening plants for IPE.

In 1986 he was headhunted to join Cross Country Lights in Haslemere, leaving Lancashire for stockbroker belt Surrey. After a very enjoyable time, Vic found himself out of a job at the age of 48. Then the opportunity at Glaverbel arose.

Glaverbel had set up its UK operation in 1987, part of a sea change in the glass trade caused by the takeover bid for Pilkington by the BTR conglomerate. To fight off the bid, Pilkington demonstrated its hold over the glass market by raising prices to inflate future returns. Overseas glassmakers noted the profits glass importers were making and decided to set up operations on these shores.

Joining Glaverbel

Vic joined Glaverbel in 1990, handling sales in the South until 2003. After a brief stint as acting Managing Director, Vic became Company Secretary at the Rugby headquarters, a move he describes as ‘poacher turned gamekeeper’. He has since helped to introduce Koen Buyck as Managing Director of the UK business.

During Vic’s time, Glaverbel has been extremely successful at introducing a range of coated glasses and fire rated products to the UK market. Vic is particularly enthusiastic about GFasT, a low E glass introduced in 2002 that can be toughened coating side down and does not require a convection furnace. ‘It’s a product no one ever thought could be made,’ he says. ‘You get better throughput and yield on the furnace,’ he adds. Glaverbel, now part of Asahi Glass Company, continues to launch new products at the rate of about one per year.

So what does retirement hold? Well, you won’t find Vic on the golf course. He and his wife Jeanette are moving home from Lutterworth, Leicestershire, to Knaresborough, Yorkshire. They plan to spend more time with their two daughters and two grandchildren.

Vic first went on the road as a salesman in 1966. ‘I always wanted to be the guy in the company car, out selling,’ he says. Cars remain a passion, and he has owned many classics, his favourite being the E-type Jaguar. These days, he drives a Mercedes, or a Smart Roadster, when his wife lets him borrow it!

Vic will be keeping in touch with us from time to time, but his eyes are firmly set on a life outside the industry. ‘I have no complaints,’ he says, summing up. ‘I’ve loved it, but I have stayed in so many hotels.’