With more than a billion euros in turnover achieved in 2011 with a workforce of 10,000 people, Gerresheimer the German group will have simply doubled its turnover in just ten "small" years. The first market is pharmacy currently worth around 82% of the activity, followed by perfume and cosmetics with about 12%. The group is present on all fronts with four divisions: technical parts and plastic packaging (34%), moulded glass (31%), drawn glass (27%) and laboratory glass (8%). The beauty sector, requires the use of six furnaces out of the seventeen currently running in the eight glass factories that the Group owns worldwide. Latest investments to date, the repair of a furnace in the German factory of Tettau last year with the installation of an additional production line and the commissioning, next fall of a new coating line in the Momignies factory in Belgium. To note among one of the specificities of Gerresheimer, the group is one of the few European glassmakers to produce opal glass, also in Belgium, in one of its specially dedicated furnaces for this production. The plant also produces cosmetic clear glass with recycled glass (post consumer) at 40%.
India: A new step
The announcement last April of the acquisition of the Indian glassmaker Neutral Glass & Allied Industries Pvt. marks a new milestone for the German group in its intent to produce "locally" as much as possible. "It’s normal, we were explained at the headquarters in Düsseldorf, because either our customers are global and we must serve them across the world, or they are local and in which case, we need to bring them an answer on the spot.”
Neutral Glass is one of the Indian leaders in the manufacture of glass for the pharmaceutical sector and can rely on a very modern factory in Kosamba (Gujarat province). Its turnover reached over the 2010/2011 period 15 million euros and it employs 600 people. A presence in India that sounds like the first step of a broader offensive to other niches than pharmaceuticals, like the one of mass market cosmetics for example.
The "prestige" axis!
A glass strategy intended for the perfume and cosmetic sector which has enabled the group to score in the "prestige" sector. Some examples with the new skincare ranges of Yves Saint Laurent, Helena Rubinstein, Lancôme, or Avon, Clarins and L’Occitane, among others. We can also mention some great achievements in perfumery, with in particular the new line of perfume vials for the famous German automotive brand, which was launched very recently in the U.S., more precisely on June 5th in New York.
"We’re quite proud of having been chosen," says Nicola Balena, Moulded Glass Sales Director at Gerresheimer . The vials (40, 75 and 120 ml), produced at the Momignies factory in Belgium, have a very thick glass basis (260 grams for the 120 ml size) which highlights particularly the famous star of the brand.
"Our aim is to respond to all requests, whether from the prestige or mass sector,” emphasises Balena. “Our global presence (Europe, China, India, U.S.) enables us to assist our clients wherever they are. We have also heavily invested in recent years in decoration techiques (water-based lacquering, multi colour decoration, hot stamping, metallization) with a dynamics we intend to keep in the future."
