I found this artical about the sale of New England Stained Glass
If it is the same company you are going to have look at your windows I would make sure you get a few more estimates.
Business for Sale: New England Stained-Glass Window Restorer
An overview of a stained-glass window restoration company offered for sale. Includes the price, how the business was valued, the outlook of future sales, and the pros and cons of the purchase.
By: Jill Andresky Fraser
The Business: How's this for the ultimate lifestyle play? Follow in the footsteps of two guys who chucked their corporate careers 14 years ago to become repairers and restorers of stained-glass windows, mainly for churches, synagogues, and historic buildings in Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire. You don't have to be a Michelangelo to run this two-person operation. But you do have to be willing to spend a couple of months learning from the current owners how to preserve, modernize, and even construct pieces for fees that range from $1,000 to $20,000 per window. With three-quarters of sales coming from repeat customers and a payment history that would turn larger companies stained-glass-green with envy, this business's devoted client base and relative lack of competition are its biggest selling points. Other assets include $15,000 worth of inventory and equipment, including a van, cutters, and a curved-glass framer. After passing on the scaffolding, the current owners are planning to reinvent their work lives yet again.
Price: $155,000 (does not include studio or office). With a $60,000 down payment, owner financing is possible for five years at 9%.
Outlook: Prospects for this niche industry (about 200 studios nationwide) look as shiny as, well, gussied-up stained glass, given that most windows require preservation after 75 to 125 years and current demand outpaces supply in many regions, such as this company's home base. As for this restorer, a new owner could polish up its growth prospects by hiring additional work crews, starting to aggressively market its services, and broadening the customer base to include residential work and new commissions. The good news: its current financial picture already looks like a masterpiece, given a gross profit margin of 70%--which is more than double the glazing industry's average of 31% for similar-sized companies.
Price Rationale: Here's the crack in the casement: with tiny industries like this one, it's difficult to come up with valuation rules of thumb or recent sales trends. For lack of better guidelines, treat this as a general-service business; in today's hot mergers-and-acquisitions market, a good price range is 1.5 to 2 times recast earnings. Since this company's results have bounced around--mainly depending upon when jobs have been completed and paid--it's best to rely on a three-year average, or about $110,000. But don't think of this company as a whopping bargain, although it is priced below the suggested range of $165,000 to $220,000; a discount makes sense here, since a new owner will need either to split profits with a partner or to hire a crew. (All jobs require at least two workers.)
Pros: You'd need a crystal ball, not a bottle of Windex, to find many lifestyle businesses with margins as pretty as this one's.
Cons: If you're afraid of heights, slivers of glass, or getting too far off the fast track, this is one scaffold to stay off of. Maybe the view from that corporate window really doesn't look so dull after all. --Jill Andresky Fraser
FINANCIALS
Year Gross Revenues Recast Earnings*
1995 $174,800 $130,400
1996 $113,500 $81,700
1997 $201,400 $119,500
*Before interest, taxes, depreciation, and owners' compensation
Inc. has no stake in the sale of the business featured. The magazine cannot confirm the accuracy of financial or other information offered by the seller. Inquiries should be directed to John Barnard of SVI Corp., at 603-883-0238.
As for what you should do;
Photographing your windows is a good start for all churches. Just be careful of the companies that say you must have your windows re-leaded right away or they will fall out and you will find them on the floor.
Thats not always true.
Here are a few sites that may help you get a better grasp on what is considered restoration
CVMA Guidelines and Restoration of Stained Glass.
http://www.cvma.ac.uk/content/conserv/A good reference manual for custodians of stained glass, 'The Care of Stained
Glass', has been produced by the Heritage Council of Ireland.
It can be downloaded here:
http://www.heritagecouncil.ie/publications/stained_glass/index.htmlThe Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the
Treatment of Historic Properties (
http://www.cr.nps.gov/hps/tps/standguide/).
Here's an excerpt from the Secretary's Standards that provides a brief
introduction on each of the four treatments of Preservation, Rehabilitation, Restoration and Reconstruction:
The Standards are neither technical nor prescriptive, but are intended to promote
responsible preservation practices that help protect our Nation's irreplaceable cultural
resources.
For example, they cannot, in and of themselves, be used to make essential
decisions about which features of the historic building should be saved and which can be
changed.
But once a treatment is selected, the Standards provide philosophical consistency to the work.
The four treatment approaches are Preservation, Rehabilitation, Restoration,
and Reconstruction, outlined below in hierarchical order and explained:
The first treatment, Preservation, places a high premium on the retention of all historic
fabric through conservation, maintenance and repair.
It reflects a building's continuum over time, through successive occupancies, and the respectful changes and alterations that are made.
Rehabilitation, the second treatment, emphasizes the retention and repair of historic
materials, but more latitude is provided for replacement because it is assumed the
property is more deteriorated prior to work. (Both Preservation and Rehabilitation
standards focus attention on the preservation of those materials, features,
finishes, spaces, and spatial relationships that, together, give a property its historic character.)
Restoration, the third treatment, focuses on the retention of materials from the most
significant time in a property's history, while permitting the removal of materials from other periods.
Reconstruction, the fourth treatment, establishes limited opportunities to re-create a non-surviving site, landscape, building, structure, or object in all new materials.
Another great place is the American Glass Guild.
www.americanglassguild.orgMichael Mezalick
Mezalick Design Studio, LLC
www.mezalick.com
