Interview Glaswelt

AGC Interpane has been fully owned by the AGC Group since the end of last year. Glaswelt spoke to Sebastian Schmidt, who was responsible for two Interpane Processing division sites as Managing Director for more than a decade and was promoted to the Management Board in October last year as part of the integration.

Glaswelt – Congratulations on your appointment to the Management Board of AGC Interpane. As a long-standing employee, you have experienced turbulent times, especially since the pandemic. What has made AGC Interpane so resilient?

Sebastian Schmidt – Thank you very much! Of course, the pandemic and more difficult supply chains have also been challenging for AGC Interpane and the future will continue to require great adaptability. We have been able to withstand the crises excellently so far. Our advantage is that we diversified our business early on and are lean and well positioned. AGC Interpane works worldwide with a high level of consulting and implementation expertise in the project business and has been excellently anchored in the local market for a long time. Our decentralized structure ensures flexibility and has always placed our customers at the heart of everything we do. We also continuously invest in our locations, our IT infrastructure and in research and development in order to develop state-of-the-art products and services and to make these available to our customers in a service-oriented manner. One example is “Coating on Demand”, which enables individual coatings for every architectural version instead of just offering products “off the shelf”. Anyone with special requirements comes to us and we create the perfect solution. We also have loyal customers and committed partners and employees with a high level of identification, whose commitment and loyalty have made a decisive contribution to mastering the challenges.

Glaswelt – How do you see the future of AGC Interpane and what strategic goals would you like to achieve?

Sebastian Schmidt – We are well positioned for the future and will continue to grow. For example, we have just reorganized and merged our locations in Lauenförde and Plattling, which have been effective in this business for many years, in order to work even more efficiently in the global project business. Since 1st September, the locations have also been organizationally and structurally one unit as “AGC Interpane Architectural Glass”. This makes us more flexible and even faster. There are similar projects in the regional market. As far as the economic conditions themselves are concerned, we are not expecting any miracles in the local new construction business for the time being, but steady growth in the segment of energy-efficient renovation of buildings for summer heat protection, high thermal insulation and a future CO2-neutral building stock.

Glaswelt – The architecture and construction industries are increasingly aware of the importance of sustainable and energy-efficient solutions. What role does AGC Interpane play in promoting such technologies?

Sebastian Schmidt – In the 1980s, Interpane developed the first color-neutral thermal insulation glass with “iplus” and has not lost any speed in the development of new energy-efficient glass products since then. Over the last decade, this has also been helped by the close collaboration with our parent company AGC Glass Europe, which has been certifying products in accordance with Cradle to Cradle since 2010 in order to become ever more sustainable and provide architects and investors with advantages when certifying their buildings in accordance with DGNB, LEED, BREAM, WELL and other standards. We have been measuring our ecological footprint for a long time and are continuously improving. The clear focus on sustainability has helped us to provide environmentally friendly solutions for the growing demand for energy-efficient glass products. This not only strengthens our position in the market, but also contributes to climate protection. We see our company as a pioneer here and work every day with our colleagues at AGC to lead this change.

Glaswelt – The work of architects and fabricators is also changing with regard to digital planning tools and BIM. How will AGC Interpane respond to these developments?

Sebastian Schmidt – Alongside sustainability, we see digitalization as one of the major game changers. It is important not to miss out on any trends and to always be one step ahead. We have already invested heavily in digital transformation in order to make our processes even more efficient and facilitate uncomplicated collaboration. We can proudly say that state-of-the-art technology is used at all our locations and our service portals are constantly being expanded. Nevertheless, there is still much more possible here. You can be sure that our customers can expect many more new and modern solutions from us in the future.

Glaswelt – How does the integration into the AGC Group affect AGC Interpane’s product range?

Sebastian Schmidt – The integration into the AGC Group has created advantages for both companies. For example, we benefit from the “AGC Technovation Center”, a research and development center in which more than 300 researchers, engineers and technicians develop completely new solutions. As a medium-sized group, we naturally did not have this “manpower” before, even though our development and consulting company has always developed pioneering technologies – it has made us one of the most competent developers of coating technologies, with real milestones for the glass industry. This competence center will not be displaced by the new cooperation, but rather will benefit from the mutual exchange with our parent company in many areas and will itself contribute our extensive expertise in the field of plasma and engineering. The AGC Group as a whole has also benefited from the alliance, for example from our outstanding application technology consulting, which has been supporting customers for decades from project planning to the completion of the most prestigious projects in the international architectural world. Synergy effects enable us to implement new products and manufacturing technologies more quickly.

Glaswelt – New glass technologies have become increasingly important in recent years. Will there be changes to the product range?

Sebastian Schmidt – New glass technologies are undoubtedly an important factor in the glass industry. Our goal will always be to be a step ahead of the current requirements for energy efficiency, sustainability and functionality. Optimized and new multilayer coatings, smart technologies, transparent solutions for solar energy generation and more – but also “frugal innovations”, i.e. resource-saving products that achieve excellent results with little use of materials and are geared towards people’s needs. Products can be as “smart” as they like, but ultimately it is no use in the long term if the “gray energy” required to produce them increases too much, if they cannot be recycled at the end of the product’s life or if they are simply too expensive for customers. Ultimately, the most intelligent products are uncomplicated and economically attractive products that fulfill their purpose excellently and ultimately become raw materials for new products. For this reason, our focus is on offering a balanced mix of proven and new technologies. The combination of innovation and durability has always been the key to our success.

Glaswelt – Mr. Schmidt, thank you for the interview.