Crystal Clear Expansion

Posted in Updates, Feb. 11, 2006

ITI Glass begins work on a new office and manufacturing facility located in Bel Aire, Kansas in March.

By Dan Voohris
The Wichita Eagle
February 11, 2006

Wickham Industries, 1320 E. Second St., will start work on a large new office and factory in Bel Aire in March.

The planned 59,000-square-foot building will sit on 10 acres on Webb Road near 45th Street. The company will move its downtown operations to the new plant by the end of the year.

The company’s Wickham Glass division is one of the city’s largest suppliers of glass for commercial buildings. The company’s ITI Glass division manufactures tempered and insulated glass and sells it regionally.

The new building is needed largely to aid the expansion of the ITI Glass operation, said Greg Wickham, manager of Wickham Glass. The company employs 61 people.

Founded in 1946, the business moved to Second Street in 1963. It has expanded six times, most recently two years ago, but the company just ran out of room, Wickham said.

The building on Second Street is listed with John T. Arnold Associates.

The added space will allow the company to buy a new furnace to make new glass products for much larger buildings.

Wickham said the new location also will help with deliveries. The company sells a good deal of tempered and insulated glass in Kansas City and Omaha.

Company trucks can drive up Webb Road less than two miles to K-254 and then to highways headed north, he said.

Wickham was founded in 1946 by B.C. Wickham. His son, Gary Wickham, is president. His grandsons, Greg and David Wickham, help run the company.

It has supplied glass for Church of the Magdalen, Exploration Place, Kansas Spine Hospital and many other projects.