Apex Glass Celebrates 50 Years

Of Business In Newtown

By Nancy K. Crevier

Frank Pitrone, Jr, is proud of the business that his father, the late Frank Pitrone, Sr, founded 50 years ago. “It’s a fourth generation business,” he said of Apex Glass, Monday, September 24, half joking. His son, Matthew, has served as shop manager at the 10 Riverside Road business for ten years; but his grandson, Eddie, is only 7 years old. “He won’t even answer the phone,” laughed Mr Pitrone, tousling his grandson’s hair. Linda Pitrone, married to Frank, Jr, is the office manager.

Frank Pitrone, Sr, was a top salesman for custom shower door manufacturer R.B. Wyatt out of Manhattan when the company asked him to move to Connecticut in the 1950s to represent Wyatt in what they saw as an up-and-coming market. The Pitrones “fell in love with Newtown,” and settled there, said Frank, Jr.

When Wyatt asked his father to return to New York, “he saw the opportunity to start his own business. We were settled here, and my dad always loved new things and selling new things.” It was 1962 when Apex Glass (formerly Apex Glass & Aluminum Products) took root in the basement of what is now Taunton Wine & Spirit shop on Route 6. Continuing to specialize in custom shower door manufacturing, Frank Sr listened to customers who were requesting other glass products. He expanded Apex to include custom mirrors, windows, and storm doors; glass tabletops; solariums; skylights; and many other related products over the years. For a period of time, Apex also offered auto glass replacement services, although the business no longer deals in that area.

As Apex grew, the company moved. Its second home was behind the old Botsford Post Office on Route 25. Then, from 1968 to 1998, it was located at 61 Church Hill Road before settling into its current location in the old Schoolhouse Deli (once the Sandy Hook Schoolhouse) just past the intersections of Washington Avenue and Church Hill Road.

Although Apex has commercial accounts, it has focused primarily on higher-end residential needs, mainly in lower Fairfield County, said Mr Pitrone. “Right now, I have three people, including myself, installing all kinds of glass products,” he said. “If we’ve been in business for 50 years, it’s not only because of my dad’s reputation, but a great deal is because Stephen Barna has been with me since 1975,” Mr Pitrone said. “He’s part of our family, and our ace mechanic,” he declared.

His father, who passed away three years ago, gave him the business in 1992, said Mr Pitrone, but it was not simply a hand-off. “He made me learn the business from the bottom up,” he said, “and I spent many, many hours here during my high school years, after school and weekends, working.” He continued to work on and off for his father during his college years, and eventually returned full time to Apex in 1973.

“My dad was great, in that when he retired, he wanted to let me do the business my way,” Mr Pitrone said, and that way is primarily a continuation of dedication to serving the customer, he said.

Willing To Adapt

The company’s ability to remain solvent in a challenging economy and an era dominated by big box stores is due to Apex’s willingness to adapt to different needs of construction and stay current with changing products, Mr Pitrone said.

As the president of the Connecticut Glass Dealers Association for the past two years, an association of glass shop owners, he attends trade shows and seminars, and finds the interaction useful for trading ideas and staying up with current technology. Mr Pitrone also serves on the review board for glass and auto glass licensing with the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection.

“People who want lower to mid-end products tend to shop the big box stores, but our customers tend to demand the higher-end products. We’re at the point where we’ve simplified the business by specializing in assisting high-end clients, and I think the people of Newtown have reaped the benefit of that, because I have the expertise and tools to serve my Newtown customers, too. We are also the local hometown glass shop, and it’s always a nice change of pace to deal with people in town,” he said. He added that because so much of his work is down county, a surprising number of Newtown residents are unaware of the services Apex offers, “Or even that we are here!”

Working mainly with remodelers, Apex has a firm reputation for quality and reliability, he said, meeting people’s needs from medium to high-end items in the glass industry. “A remodeler, as opposed to a new home builder, is going in somewhere that is already someone’s home. They want a subcontractor, like Apex, who cares as much as they do, and who will provide the quality and service those customers demand,” Mr Pitrone said. Nearly all of the business comes through word of mouth, Mr Pitrone said, and from a very loyal customer base that returns to Apex over and again.

It is the very personal service that Apex provides that has kept it in business, he believes. “Our customers like to see a face and know the owner,” he said.

Apex has been the glass company for work done in the homes of high profile customers including Meryl Streep, Woody Allen, Keith Richards, and Brian Cashman, Mr Pitrone said. Some of these well-known people he has had the pleasure to meet, but others have dealt only with the general contractor. “We’ve done jobs from the Hamptons to Woodstock, N.Y., to Massachusetts and beyond,” said Mr Pitrone.

‘We Love A Challenge’

Among the things that draw remodelers and private customers to Apex is that “we love a challenge. Most of what we do here is custom work,” he said, “and our customers value that.” Helping customers resolve difficult problems in situating shower installments, clever use of mirrors and glass products, and providing solutions for skylights, screen porches, and solariums (“Really popular in the 1980s, but not as much now.”) gives Mr Pitrone and his staff great pleasure.

Much of the work takes place in the Riverside Road shop. Behind the front office showroom, where dozens of glass samples for cupboard and shower doors, storm window options, mirrors, and framed shower enclosures are on display, are two workshops.

The “Little Work Room” is where small repairs and replacement jobs take place. “This is where we fix screens, glaze windows, replace picture glass, and that sort of thing,” Mr Pitrone said.

Beyond the Little Work Room is the 1,000-square-foot addition put on in 1998, the “Big Work Room.”

“This is where we do the real work, where the custom items are created,” said Mr Pitrone. The room is dominated by a huge, 10-foot by 12-foot tilt table on which large sections of plate glass can be safely placed, and by the Italian-made edger, “Our pride and joy,” Mr Pitrone said. The edger is able to polish the edges of large straight sheets of glass for tabletops and mirrors.

A smaller, vertical edger at the opposite side of the room was the only edger until 1986 for all glass work needing smooth edges, and is still used today for any piece that is not perfectly straight.

The current recession has been challenging for Apex, in that it is the first time a recession has been felt by those living in lower Fairfield County. Prior to the mid-2000s, he said, Apex and its main customer base felt fairly insulated from economic changes.

“But we’re hanging in there,” he said. “I think,” said Mr Pitrone, “that the best thing about all these years is that I like people. I like meeting people and I love a challenge.

“I wish my dad was still here, but he knew we’d be here, that we’d make 50 years.”