Carl Christopher Mammen came to America in 1909 when he was 17 years old. He married Elizabeth Althof and had 3 sons. Their eldest son, Johnny Herman (J.H.) Mammen, started working at Adeleta Showcase and Fixture in Dallas when he was 19. His first job there was sweeping the floors. J.H. worked his way up through the company until he was in charge of the glass department. During this time, in 1936, he married Lorene Brookes. J.H. and Lorene had two sons, John and Jim.
In 1955, Lorene started Mammen Glass and Mirror by taking orders during the day for windshield replacements. J.H. would pick up the windshields on his way home from work and install them in the evening. By 1956 business had picked up enough that J.H. resigned from Adeleta and worked with his wife full-time. In the first month following this they had to hire their first employee and soon started doing residential and commercial glass work. Their boys, John and Jim, both began helping out part-time at age 12, and both went to work for the company full-time after graduating from Irving High School and serving in the Army Reserves. John's son Chris also began working part-time at age 12, and in 1993 came back to the company full-time after graduating from Trinity University and working at American Flat Glass Distributors.
Today, Mammen Glass and Mirror, Inc. does business as M3 Glass Technologies, and is owned and managed by John, Jim, and Chris Mammen (Chris' son Jonathan also began working at age 12 in 2010, making us a 4th-generation company). We made the transition from "glass and mirror company" to a vertically-integrated wholesale glass fabricator in 2005, when we installed our first tempering furnace and became the first independent temperer in DFW. 21 months later, we added our second tempering furnace, but this was the first bi-directional furnace in the USA, capable of making both flat and bent oversized tempered glass. We are the only company in the region making bent tempered glass. Also in 2007 we added DecoTherm decorative printed glass. In 2008, we began making laminated glass, and we expanded the laminating facility in 2009. Also in 2009, we began producing ColorBak back-painted glass, and in 2010 we added Mprint digitally printed laminated glass. These decorative products, along with new national advertising and trade show presence, have allowed us to grow our market even as the economy has suffered. Through the past 55 years, we have remained in the same location while growing and expanding with the community. We now occupy 3 buildings at our same original location, where Carl and Elizabeth settled and established their farm nearly 100 years ago. We also have a distribution center in Austin to serve South Texas. As our capacity and product line has expanded, we have also expanded our service area to include customers across the U.S. and internationally.
The company was named by the US Chamber of Commerce as Small Business of the Year for the southwest region (7 states) in 2007. This made us a finalist for the national award, which we did not win. We repeated this honor in 2008 and again in 2009. We were also named to the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing privately-held companies in the United States in 2007, 2008, 2009, and again in 2010. These awards have brought us national attention and media coverage, and the resulting credibility has helped us to grow our market.
