Olivier Caspar, Verreries Brosse

There are hardly any suppliers that can claim they have been partnering with the most prestigious luxury fragrances French brands, from the late 19th century to present days. The Verreries Brosse are one of them. Since the early 1920s, the company founded in 1854, have been supplying brands such as Chanel, Lanvin, Carven, Patou or Guerlain. “For Verreries Brosse, it’s a heritage and a mission that constitute a perennial honour, and a responsibility,” says Olivier Caspar, managing director of the company.

Nevertheless, the weight of this legacy could have been fatal to the company, which missed the take off of the automatic glass production and carried on manufacturing high end glass bottles with the semi-automatic process that ensured flawless quality but was soon limited to luxury glass containers for perfume extracts and to giant factice models.

Luxury-oriented

In 2002, the acquisition by the Italian glassmaking company Zignago Vetro Group marks the opening of a new era for Verreries Brosse. The start up of a new automated furnace that doubles the company’s production capacity in 2009 allows Verreries Brosse to meet the demand for glass bottles in large series with the aim to transfer to the automatic production the culture of high quality and high-end standards acquired with the semi-automatic production.

However, Verreries Brosse did not give up semi-automatic production, their historical expertise, which there were the last one to use in Europe. Today, the combination of automatic and semi-automatic production tools allows the company to be the only glassmaker in Europe able to produce the entire range of bottles needed by luxury companies: from miniatures to dummy models and special bottles for extraits, plus stoppers, jars and carafes…

Our automated production makes it possible to complete a minimum of 30,000 units per day. But we can also deliver the bottles for a market test or a limited edition of 5,000. Being different and thinking strategically: that is Verreries Brosse’s commitment to the market. We meet the needs of our clients, whether they want a million bottles, a small series of a few thousand or just enough for a test project, at prices adjusted according to the process involved. This flexibility is made possible by the complementary nature, unique on the market, of our two production tools,” explains the company.

Growth strategy

Thanks to these assets, complemented by a catalogue of twenty standard bottles (including recent models launched at the Luxe Pack Monaco tradeshow in 2014 and two new models planned for the 2015 edition), the supplier aims to challenge the industry’s leaders and to become a key player in the production of in high-end bottles.

To achieve this goal, Verreries Brosse rely on growing their automatic activity in the perfume sector and their semiautomatic business in premium wines and spirits, without any compromise regarding quality standards. For instance, the company maintain visual control of each unit produced on its lines. "The human eye is indispensable, it is able to see defaults that are not identified by cameras," explains Laurent Santarelli, the Director of Vieux-Rouen-sur-Bresle production facility.

As far as finishing is concerned, Verreries Brosse work in partnership with the Nigermat Pariche group. "This partnership with a decoration specialist, headquartered in a nearby location in the Bresle Valley, allows us to do our own developments," says Olivier Caspar.

Actually, Verreries Brosse have chosen to focus their investments on the production of glass, with two main areas of research: the distribution of glass and the internal decoration of bottles. The first results should be showcased at the next edition of Luxe Pack in Monaco from 21 to 23 October 2015.