Glasstile president builds success piece by piece

The gig: Sean Gildea, 48, is president of Oceanside Glasstile. Since its founding in 1992, “before recycling was really happening,” Gildea said, the firm has used large amounts of recycled glass to make tiles for kitchens, baths, swimming pools and fireplaces.

A Tijuana factory employs 290 people, and an additional 40 workers are at company headquarters in Carlsbad.

The niche: The company’s tiles are sold mainly through third-party showrooms across the U.S. and in more than 20 other countries. The company provides design consulting services for its clients, many of whom are interior decorators, and has online programs in which customers can mix shapes, textures, sizes and colors of tile into thousands of designs.

No suits allowed: Gildea earned a UC Santa Barbara economics degree and had worked for three years as a Deloitte & Touche auditor when his uncle, Boyce Lundstrom, co-founder of Oregon stained-glass specialist Bullseye Glass Co., called.

“He said, ‘How would you like to hang up your suit and put on flip-flops and become an entrepreneur?’” Lundstrom and two artists, Jon Stokesbary and Don Pettey, wanted to make glass tiles, a rarity at the time — as long as the work didn’t interfere with surfing. “These guys were coming out of the water and playing with clay and blowing glass.” Gildea signed on as the bean counter.

Auditing take-aways: “You learn as you go, client to client,” he said. “You learn different cultures. I liked the atmosphere at some where everyone worked hard and they were leaders in the industry, but they did it in a way that was fun and relaxed.”

Hearst Castle: In 1995, Oceanside Glasstile was hired to replace parts of the lavish cobalt and gold mosaic glass tile at the indoor Roman Pool at William Randolph Hearst’s estate on the Central California coast.

The company had never produced mosaic tile, and it took nine months to match the texture and color of the Italian tiles from the 1920s, but the lessons learned resulted in mosaics becoming a major part of the business.

“When you’re a young upstart you get the business first and then figure out how to do it,” Gildea said.

Crash crisis: “August of 2008 was our best month ever,” he said. “Then in September, we got caught up in the complete failure of the business world.”

The Great Recession sent annual revenue tumbling from more than $30 million to less than $20 million, and years of layoffs, salary cuts and benefit reductions ensued.

“With a business model of excellent customer service, you never know how far to go. If you cut too far, how do you build it back up?” Gildea said.

One answer was furloughs: having employees take a day off without pay every two weeks. Things are improving slowly, Gildea said, but his rueful motto remains: “Flat is the new up.”

Off the clock: Oceanside Glasstile encourages employees to take time out to play sports and to volunteer at nonprofits on the company’s dime. “California mojo,” Gildea calls his emphasis on wellness, philanthropy and collaboration.

The company relocated July 14 to a new headquarters, where a top priority was installing a sports court. Gildea plays in four or five company basketball games a week; employees report for work after surfing or step out at lunch to bike, hit the gym or do yoga.

“I don’t keep track of their hours and I honestly don’t care. All I care is that people get their work done. Sometimes they have to come in early or stay late.”

Personal: Gildea, who plays drums in a company rock band, grew up in Orange County, surfing and enjoying camping at Coto de Caza when, he said, it felt like “the edge of the frontier” instead of “Real Housewives of Orange County” territory.

He had another reason to celebrate July 14: He and his high school sweetheart, Sheryl, celebrated 25 years of marriage. They have two daughters.

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Twitter: @ScottReckard