CARROLL MCCORMICK 2025-06-05 05:12:54
A well-tempered glass business
Prince Edward Island-based Silliker Glass gives Atlantic glaziers a local option.
Seeing shortcomings in the ability for tempered glass manufacturers to serve Atlantic Canadian customers, Prince Edward Island-based Silliker Glass decided in 2010 to pivot from their traditional bread-and-butter commercial and industrial glass installation activites to manufacturing tempered glass. The result of their radical pivot and considerable investment is that the company now operates out of four locations spread across Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
“Most of the people down here were sourcing it from Quebec and the lead times were just exponentially long,” says Matthew Silliker, company owner and grandson of company founder Ed Silliker.
The decision to commit the company to such a capital-intensive change was informed by the alignment of several stars, including the availability for purchase of a building the federal government had used during the construction of the Confederation Bridge that connects the Island to the mainland, government funding and the ever-increasing specification of glass building exteriors by architects, according to Silliker.
“They’re pushing the envelope on what glass manufacturers can supply and provide. As America changes and grows, the glass seems to be at the forefront of that growth,” Silliker says. “My father and my uncle thought it was a good idea to jump at the opportunity, and with the building available and government funding and [architecture] trending in that direction, they ran with it. This was the first time bringing an oven to Atlantic Canada for tempering glass. There is a significant capital investment required to do something like this, but my uncle and my father saw an opportunity to capitalize on, and so far, so good,” says Silliker, who has worked with the company for over 20 years.
Silliker Glass’s head office and largest plant, at 65,000 square feet, was acquired in 2018 and is known as Plant 167. It is in Borden-Carleton, a small town near the foot of the Confederation Bridge, just across the highway from Silliker’s 2010 purchase: that former government building, which Silliker refers to as Plant 68.
A third facility, which Silliker acquired with the purchase of City Thermopane in 2019, and referred to as Plant 420, is in Beresford Belle-Baie, on the Baie des Chaleurs and just a 25-minute drive south of the Port of Belledune on New Brunswick’s east coast.
Silliker also operates a 20,000 squarefoot aluminum fabrication shop in Borden- Carleton and a 10,000 square foot aluminum fabrication shop in Mount Uniacke - a roughly 20-minute drive west of Halifax.
The history of Silliker Glass stretches back to the early 1960s when Ed Silliker founded G. E. Silliker Construction in Summerside as a contracting business. By 1965 the company was specializing in commercial and industrial glass installations. Ed’s sons Ron and Stacy took over the business in 1981, incorporated it and changed the company name to G. E. Silliker and Sons.
“In the past, the company was well known in the glass industry for doing commercial and industrial jobs. In June of 2010, we stopped doing installations and became a supplier to the glass industry. In October 2010, we moved to our new location in Borden-Carleton. The new shop [Plant 68] has many new pieces of equipment, which allows us to produce many new products, which had only been available from outside of the Atlantic Provinces,” the company website explains.
In Plant 68 Silliker manufacturers tempered glass over six millimetres, for applications such as showers, railings storefronts and entrances. Silliker has carried out several renovations and additions to it and the co-located aluminum fabrication shop. The latter was recently enlarged by 15,000 square feet.
Plant 167 is the company’s newest facility. “The main shipping department and key administrative roles are located here. It has the same glass manufacturing capabilities as the other plants, but here we mostly stick to glass products under six millimetres for window applications,” Silliker explains. Its production areas include two tempering ovens, four cutting tables, two seamers , five washers, multiple polishers, a laminated glass oven, four insulating glass unit lines and a paint line. This is also where the company’s biggest oven is located, with a bed capable of accepting a sheet of glass 86 by 168 inches.
“This is the biggest piece that we can temper,” Silliker says. “We might put 30 or 40 small pieces in an oven or just one large piece. It fluctuates from run to run.”
The company’s glass products include insulated glass units, commercial windows, entrances, storefront systems, showers, railings, clear and tinted glass, low-E and reflective float glass, laminated, pattern, specialty glass, mirrors and polycarbonate sheets.
Even though the company switched tack to become primarily a manufacturer of tempered glass, it continues the aluminum fabricating work that it began in 1980. This includes window and door frames, curtainwall, doors and thermal doors. “We also carry hardware such as handles, hinges and electronic openers. Aluminum fabricating is a growth portion of our business, but it’s also an insurance portion of our business as well,” Silliker explains.
The tempering work is currently divided between Plant 167 and Plant 68. Plant 420 in Beresford Belle-Baie manufacturers the majority of the annealed insulated glass units. It has a tempering oven, but it is not online yet. Sized at 35,000 square feet when Silliker bought City Thermopane, Silliker added 10,000 square feet to it in 2023.
The company employees about 100 people. As a glass company, employees need to have particular attributes, Silliker explains. “Fitness and attention to detail are the biggest things. People need to be safety-conscious. They need to pay attention to detail for quality issues. Without our outstanding staff we wouldn’t be able to work within the industry. Their commitment to serving our customer base is second to none.”
Keeping the production areas clean is a constant task due to the protective layer of dust that comes on the raw sheets of glass. “There’s a lot of dust brought into the facility from the glass receiving process. The glass has to be put through our automated washers after we cut it to size and take the sharp edges off, a process referred to as seaming,” Silliker says. The production floors are constantly being wet-mopped with little Zamboni-like machines, and the equipment requires constant cleaning as well.
The company’s geographical reach is mainly Atlantic Canada. Deliveries are made using three company tractor trailers and three straight trucks equipped with piggyback forklifts. “We wouldn’t ship much further than Montreal. We deliver the glass ourselves, but we’ll send certain things via common carrier to get something quickly to a rural location that is not part of our normal delivery route,” Silliker says.
While Silliker sources some of its glass from the United States (“As of right now, there’s no tariff on glass,” Silliker notes.) it also sources glass from around the world. “We’ve been tapping the international market long before [the United States’ 2025 tariffs],” he says. As for tariff threats, Silliker says, “We have an international broker that we use for glass. We wake up every morning and we’ve got the news on to see what came out the night before. That’s right. You have to check every few minutes to see what the latest [tariff] idea is. We’re ready.”
In that understated way that sounds like home to anyone raised on the east coast, Silliker summarises the rapid expansion and success of his company’s big dive into tempered glass: “For the most part we’re just out here trying to get by and enjoy what we’re doing the best we can and service our clients the best we can. It’s not an easy business to get in, and our customers are still learning what our product offerings are, including our growing capacity to offer more of our high-quality laminated glass. We appreciate the local support. In today’s world, supporting people within the communities we support is paramount to the success of our region. We need to continue working together to push back against the shifting markets.”
©Annex Glass Canada. View All Articles.