Glass half full

Not only is John Hunter the successful founder and owner of Abbey Glass, he is also a fantastic ambassador for the industry.

John’s framing career started in 1990 when he joined Ashworth & Thompson as a warehouse person, then through the years became their branch manager for Northern Ireland. When Ashworth & Thompson closed their operations down in the Republic of Ireland, he became the manager for both areas.

Jason (top) and Mark

Petite 334 133

Eiffel 334 133

After 19 very happy years, John decided to set up his own business – with the blessing of his ex-employers, with whom he has remained on friendly terms.

Fast forward to 2023 and Abbey Glass is Northern Ireland’s largest framing wholesaler/distributor. The company was named after John’s youngest daughter, Abigail, who was born in 2008. Abbey Glass is a family-run business with John’s wife Samantha looking after website orders, emails and accounts. Their son, Jake, works in the warehouse, running order processing and stock control. John’s brother, Mark, is one of the delivery drivers and the other driver, Jason, is John’s daughter Samantha’s partner.

In the early days, glass was a focal point – especially with it being the first component a framer sources, which gave John a route in with his other products. Glass is 20-25% of revenue now with the rest spread across mouldings, mountboard, equipment and sundries.

“I have always loved this industry and back in the Noughties I could see the marketplace was changing. I wanted to see what I could achieve as my own boss, where I could be totally responsive to customer demands in my own way, being as flexible and agile as possible, and so I dived in at the deep end!” John told 4walls, “and so Abbey Glass was launched in 2009.”

Quality first

John stocks over 370 Larson-Juhl mouldings including many essential black and white frames alongside Collections such as Simplicity and Andover and other popular ranges like Eiffel and Petite III.

“My move to stock so many Larson-Juhl product lines was born out of customer commitment. Cutting corners with cheaper options does not work in the long term.”

Abbey Glass’s online sales are now an incredible 95% of their business. John has invested considerably in making the e-commerce experience easy and intuitive, for example, if a customer searches for a Larson-Juhl product code on John’s website, the item will come up with the Abbey Glass code.

Samantha

Orin Forshaw and John Hunter

Customer focus

John is obsessed with customer service: “I am driven by a single-minded desire to deliver whatever my customers want. This is my focus. This is how I market my business. I do very little traditional marketing activity, and what I do is generally in partnership with Larson-Juhl area sales manager Orin Forshaw.

“Without the Guild, the industry would be in a mess! Everyone would do their own thing! How would consumers be able to differentiate between a qualified professional framer and someone looking to make a bit of cash out of a hobby?”

“Towards the end of last year, for example, I purchased over 200 Larson-Juhl mountboard caddies and we dual-branded them.

“Mountboard sales benefitted from a huge boost as a result. Mountboard orders are further helped by allowing framers to purchase single sheets, in both standard and jumbo formats. We also offer the full range of Larson-Juhl conservation white core mountboard.”

AR70 is John’s best-selling specialist UV glass but he also stocks UV 99 conservation standard and AR 99 museum standard. From 1st March onwards, John will only be selling the Artglass brand.

John’s customer-first mindset also applies to his decision to deliver everything with his own drivers and fleet of three vans to ensure timely arrival and minimal damage.

In recognition of Abbey Glass’s exceptionally high service levels, John has picked up two customer service awards in recent years at the Fine Art Trade Guild’s annual awards.

Jake

Guild ambassador

John is a huge believer in the Guild and strongly recommends becoming a Commended framer to all his customers. John was Guild treasurer for five years from 2017-2022.

Another key principle for John is a committed approach to environmental responsibility: “We make sure that we minimise waste, and try to re-use packaging whenever we possibly can. White foam and wooden casings, for example, get recycled by customers.”

Partners

Larson-Juhl’s Orin Forshaw has been working with John for over five years now, and the two men remain very like-minded.

John expects 2023 to be challenging given the economy but regardless of external factors, John will be keeping close to his customers and responding to their needs with his renowned energy, care and passion for service.

“Orin and I have a brilliant relationship that is built on trust. I never have to chase him,” John explains, “he pre-empts where questions might arise and comes up with a solution. We have shared values with a simple philosophy to provide the best quality framing materials at the best price supported by the best level of service.”