With manufacturing facilities on three continents, in Germany, in Poland, in Peru and in China, and with a production capacity around 465 tons of glass per day, German glassmaker Heinz Glas already has strong industrial assets.
“These assets are reinforced by our ability to innovate,” states Nicolas Lejeune, development manager at Heinz Glas. “Our strength lies in our ability to continuously improve the appearance of glass, to optimise industrial processes, to offer more than just glass (in particular through environment-friendly technologies), and to propose the full range of possible finishes (serigraphy, pad printing, hot stamping, glass etching, vacuum metallization, etc.)”.
Upmarket shift
Actually, within ten years, Heinz Glas operated a dramatic and successful upmarket shift. Considered as a “middle market” company during the 1990s, the German glassmaker is now renown as one of the best manufacturers of high-end and luxury glass. An achievement based on the group’s massive investments in its production tool, in particular in finishing techniques.
“Of course, it’s not by chance that we reached this position,” says Yann Lefrancq, Heinz Glas France. According to her, the success of the company is mainly due to “the permanent search for technical excellence and the optimization of our production tool”.
To push the limits of finishing
“It’s true that finishing soon appeared as a key factor of success of Heinz Glas’ strategy,” Nicolas Lejeune explains. “Since the end of 2000, our German manufacturing unit has been equipped with production lines using eco-friendly water-based lacquers. Five years later, in order to go beyond the limits of serigraphy, we chose to develop pad printing and started a new high-performance machine. Eventually, in 2007 and 2008, we have increased our finishing capacity with two additional lines.”
Indeed, Heinz Glas is convinced that pad printing is a key technology for the future and has the potential to answer the weirdest customer demands. Heinz Glas even developed enamel inks, and most recently, golden and platinum inks, and adapted them to its equipment.
Heinz Glas is now able to place a four-colour image, or gold or platinum or enamel, everywhere on a bottle.
