New life for Collingwood glass plant

By all accounts, this plant was dead.

The company forced into receivership, an auctioneer poised to sell off the assets of former Barber Glass. Forty-five people having to look for new jobs.

However, two men — one, a local boy with more than his share of successful business start-ups under his belt, his investment partner a Caledon resident — stepped forward to outbid all others to buy up the equipment used to manufacture architectural glass, and plan to reopen the west-end plant within the next 30 days.

"People were on the phone and the Internet, trying to buy things up," said Richard Wilson, who grew up in Collingwood and who was one of Barber's main customers. "We went through the auction and bought all the pieces to make this work.

"We had to buy all the equipment... it all worked out (and) I hope we can continue to go that way."

It was a dramatic end to a story that could have played out much differently. It was late last fall that Barber Glass was pushed into receivership, three years after the plant's arrival in Collingwood was announced with much fanfare by municipal officials.

In February, its demise seemed all but certain after a judge ruled in favour of an application by the receiver to start auctioning off the company's assets, both here and in Guelph.

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