Glasspro Company History
The history behind Glasspro parallels the life of its founder, owner and president, Mr. Paul Heinauer. Here is Paul's story...
Paul Heinauer was born in Pittsburgh, PA on July 25, 1956. He married his high school sweetheart, Paula, and the Heinauers have two children, Adam and Lauren.
Paul got started in the glass industry in 1979 as a management trainee with PPG Industries. After his initial training, he was assigned to Charlotte, NC selling flat glass and auto glass. In 1985 Paul was promoted Branch Manager.
In 1986, Paul left PPG to help launch Coastal Glass Distributors in Charleston, SC. The company became a major wholesaler of primarily plate glass, mirrors and auto glass, as well as manufacturing of insulated glass. When some large national glass companies began buying out smaller auto glass installation companies in 1994, Paul decided the company needed to protect its wholesale auto glass business by merging two retail auto glass installation companies. On February 1, 1995, Paul created Glasspro, Inc. To concentrate his efforts on establishing and growing Glasspro, Paul then sold the wholesale glass segment of the business to Jack Hoey, his long-time best friend from high school.
Glasspro’s flagship location was in North Charleston at 4975 Dorchester Road. Paul then opened a second location in July of that year at 1314 Stuart Engals Blvd. in Mt. Pleasant (then relocated to its present Mt. Pleasant location at 1407 Stuart Engals Blvd. in 2005). Over the years since its founding, Glasspro has strategically opened new auto glass replacement and repair facilities in areas that customers had requested, as well as markets that were underserved. Today, Glasspro owns and operates nine auto glass centers in the Lowcountry, including North Charleston, Mt. Pleasant, Summerville, Goose Creek, which also includes a car wash facility, Georgetown, Walterboro, Bluffton, Myrtle Beach and Florence.
Paul’s business philosophy is unchanged since Glasspro began in 1995. In Paul’s own words, “We truly strive to delight every customer.” Paul believes that when customers make an auto glass decision, they’re really making a safety decision since 50 to 75% of the structural integrity of a car comes from the auto glass. And since it is critical that the glass be installed correctly, training is extremely important and Glasspro technicians are certified by the National Glass Association, as well as by Glasspro’s urethane adhesive supplier. According to Paul, “We are constantly motivated to make every customer’s experience with Glasspro as positive as possible by the service we provide, from the pre-inspection of their vehicle to vacuuming it out when we’re finished. We also only use Original Equipment Glass, state-of-the-art adhesive, and provide a Nationwide Lifetime Warranty on our work.”
As an extension of delighting customers, all Glasspro stores feature a checkerboard racing black and white graphic theme, along with the distinctive red Glasspro logo. Customer amenities include waiting area WI FI, TV, soft drinks and coffee … and plenty of Glasspro smiles at no extra charge.
