O-I Glass Profile
O-I Glass, Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates as a manufacturer of glass container products. The company has two segments based on its geographic locations: Americas and Europe.
Strategy
The company’s strategies are to profitably grow the top line through effective innovation, marketing, and commercialization and excel at serving customers; elevate year-over-year productivity across the business; disrupt current industry dynamics by creating a new paradigm with MAGMA; and become the most sustainable rigid packaging producer.
Products and Services
The company produces glass containers for alcoholic beverages, including beer, flavored malt beverages, spirits and wine. The Company also produces glass packaging for a variety of food items, soft drinks, teas, juices and pharmaceuticals. The company manufactures glass containers in a wide range of sizes, shapes and colors and is active in new product development and glass container innovation.
Customers
The company’s largest customers consist mainly of the leading global food and beverage manufacturers, including Anheuser-Busch InBev, Brown Forman, Carlsberg, Coca-Cola, Constellation, Heineken, Molson Coors, Nestle, PepsiCo and Pernod Ricard.
The company sells most of its glass container products directly to customers under annual or multi-year supply agreements. Multi-year contracts typically provide for price adjustments based on cost changes. The company also sells some of its products through distributors. Many customers provide the company with regular estimates of their product needs, which enables the company to schedule glass container production to maintain reasonable levels of inventory. Glass container manufacturing facilities are generally located in close proximity to customers.
Sales and Markets
The company’s principal markets for glass container products are in the Americas and Europe.
Americas: The company has 32 glass container manufacturing plants in the Americas region located in Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and the U.S. and interests in three joint ventures that manufacture glass containers. Also, the company has a distribution facility in the U.S. used to import glass containers from its business in Mexico. The company has the leading share of the glass container segment of the U.S. rigid packaging market, based on sales revenue by domestic producers. In South America and Mexico, the company maintains a diversified portfolio serving several markets, including alcoholic beverages (beer, wine and spirits), non-alcoholic beverages and food, as well as a large infrastructure for returnable/refillable glass containers. Imports from China, Mexico, Taiwan and other countries also compete in U.S. glass container segments. Additionally, there are several major consumer packaged goods companies that self-manufacture glass containers.
Competition: The company competes directly with Verallia and Vidrala-Vidroporto in Brazil and Orora Group in Mexico.
Europe: The company is one of the leaders in the glass container segment of the rigid packaging market in the European countries in which it operates, with 34 glass container manufacturing plants located in the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom. These plants primarily produce glass containers for the alcoholic beverages (beer, wine and spirits), non-alcoholic beverages and food markets in these countries. The company also has interests in two joint ventures that manufacture glass containers in Italy.
Competition: Throughout Europe, the company competes directly with a variety of glass container manufacturers including Verallia, Ardagh Group, Vetropack, Vidrala and BA Vidro. In addition to competing with other large and well-established manufacturers in the glass container segment, the company competes in all regions with manufacturers of other forms of rigid packaging, principally aluminum cans and plastic containers. The principal competitors producing metal containers include Ardagh Group, Ball Corporation, Crown Holdings, Inc., CANPACK and Silgan Holdings Inc. The principal competitors producing plastic containers include Amcor, Consolidated Container Holdings, LLC, Plastipak Packaging, Inc. and Silgan Holdings Inc.
Seasonality
Sales of many glass container products such as beer, beverages and food are seasonal. Shipments in North America and Europe are typically greater in the second and third quarters of the year, while shipments in Latin America are typically greater in the third and fourth quarters of the year (year ended December 31, 2023).
Regulation
In the U.S., the company is subject to various state and federal regulatory agencies, such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which assure safe and healthy working conditions by setting and enforcing standards and by providing training, outreach, education and assistance.
History
O-I Glass, Inc. was founded in 1903. The company was incorporated in 2019.
