Kalamazoo company has a blast with glass

After watching family members and friends struggle with keeping their medical marijuana in untidy plastic bags, Chad Pillars decided there had to be a better way.

“It seemed like they should be able to keep it in a proper container,” says Pillars, who has family members who have cancer. A company to sell glass jars with sandblasted designs emerged from that concern. He and three friends now creat Ganjars to meet that need.

Ganjars began selling on Etsy and wider distribution is in the works. The jars are one product of GJ4Designs, LLC, a company that got its start not quite one year ago.

Three of its four employees work from a 600-square-foot space in the Parks Trade Center, 326 W Kalamazoo Ave. Suite. 135, in downtown Kalamazoo. Each of them work at least once a week sandblasting decorative designs onto the jars.

The fourth employee works in Colorado where he is in charge of national sales for the jars and other GJ4 Designs products.

The company will soon be moving into designs for glasses used at bars and coffee shops, Pillars says. Considering the rapid growth of the craft beer movement in Michigan and the proliferation of coffee shops, the company sees this as a significant potential growth area.

Pour Michigan is the company’s line for coffee shops, Pillars says.

Up next for the company is attendance at a trade show in Los Vegas and two expos in the Detroit area where it hopes to find a range of customers for its glass containers and specialty glasses.

The jars and other sand blasted glass products feature designs by Josh Abernathy, of GJ4Designs. Pillars is general manager, doing whatever is needed. Simon Dezsi is the project manager for the company. And Jud Lindsey handles sales.

Writer: Kathy Jennings, Second Wave
Source: Chad Pillars, GJ4Designs