We got an invitation from GLAPOR to join the tenth birthday in their factory. It means that 10 years ago Walter Frank founded this company to produce and sell cellular glass gravel and boards.

In his philosophy, boards are an extension of the succesfull cellular glass gravel, based on 100% recycled glass with a minimum energy and zero waste production. Today, this philosophy is changing the cellular glass world by putting an enormous price pressure to obtain: “cellular glass for everybody”, which is the mission of BELGLAS.

GLAPOR is not only a cellular glass producer but also a multicultural family, which is celebrating this 10 years old relationship. In that perspective, all family and shareholders are present to enjoy this unique culture. Pimpy Panda is the multicultural music group, which is already announcing the show on YouTube.

GLAPOR is based in Mitterteich, a municipality in the district of Tirschenreuth, in Bavaria, Germany. In fact, GLAPOR is located in the old porcelain factory of Mitterteich, saving and renewing the old experience to work with minerals, furnaces and high temperature equipment. About the old porcelain factory on the GLAPOR site, I copied the following:

Porzellanfabrik Mitterteich A.G. (1917 until 2006)

To match constantly rising demand, a second facility (‘Werk B’) was in 1925 constructed on Hüblteichstrasse and the total number of workers increased to just over 300 in the same year. The second facility was in 1937 followed by a third, ‘Werk C’, located on Schulgartenstrasse. The whole factory used standard coal-fired kilns before completely switching to gas-fired tunnel kilns early in the 1950’s.

A huge fire completely destroyed the ‘Werk C’ part of the facility in 1988 and the required reconstruction took until 1989. With all three locations fully operational again, the factory had a production area of 20,000 square meters and a workforce of around 800 people. The Mitterteich A.G. seemed to cope quite well with the overall situation on the German market. But in August 2005 the small city was rocked by the news that the company, represented by the board of directors, had to file for bankruptcy. For the 360 workers (70 percent of these female), it came as a shock. The small hope of an investor being able to save the company was destroyed by the local banks, who did not want to support the Mitterteich facility any longer. On March 1st 2006 the doors leading to the factory closed for the last time.

In 2007, Walter Frank founded GLAPOR and used the old buildings and infrastructure.