Premium Beauty News - An old story, that of your Group?

Stefano Bortoli - It began in the early 1940s from the idea of a man, Mr Gaetano Marzotto, who designed a complementary and supplementary activity to farming that existed at that time. Today, the Zignago Holding has operations in many different sectors, from the production, of wine, electricity through biomass, to that of glass including real estate. The share of the Zignago Vetro Group alone accounts for about some EUR 319 million in sales for a staff of roughly 2000 people. We can quickly recall the various entities part of the Zignago Vetro Group: the glassmaker Zignago Vetro itself weighs EUR 175 million in revenue, to which we must add the Verreries Brosses (EUR 54 million), Vetri Speciali (EUR 142 million), Huta Szkla Czechy (EUR 22 million) and Vetreco (EUR 11 million).

Premium Beauty News - The production of glass packaging for the food industry is one of the dominating activities!

Stefano Bortoli - Yes, Zignago Vetro remains an important player in food and beverage. But it’s important to underline that today the balance between the Food&Beverages (F&B) and Cosmetics&Perfumes(C&P) market activities is one of our strategic key points.

Premium Beauty News - How many factories, furnaces and production lines do you have?

Stefano Bortoli - Without Vetri Speciali, the Group has seven furnaces distributed in four European factories. Note that we plan to add an additional furnace next year in our Polish plant of Huta Szkla Czechy. And we have twenty three production lines, across all sectors.

Premium Beauty News - Can you also decorate your products?

Stefano Bortoli - We are able to offer a complete service of secondary treatments, from a simple silk screening to the most complex treatment such as hot stamping and metallization that can be made either internally or externally. In this sector, we are investing in our polish plant which is equipped today with 2 lacquering lines and 4 serigraphy lines.

Note also that the Polish factory has its own mould-making workshop, which is meant to become the hub for all the factories of the Group.

Premium Beauty News - The perfume and cosmetic market is experiencing ups and downs right now? How do you cope with these changes?

Stefano Bortoli - It is true that the perfume and nail polish market is slightly down at the moment, but we remain confident about an upcoming rebound. To remain in the race in this global competition between glassmakers, we have decided to enlarge our global offer from the high end to mass market, and in this perspective, the choice of investing in Poland was the right one.

Besides, there are other niches in cosmetics which are growing rapidly, such as foundations and skincare products in general. To meet the needs of this market, we constantly create new cream jars and standard bottles. As for perfumery, the niche of independent Perfumers is quite promising.

Premium Beauty News - You have a strong foothold in foreign markets?

Stefano Bortoli - We ship worldwide, with an increasing demand from the Far East. Latest initiative is the creation in 2015 of Zignago Vetro USA with an office in New York and one in San Francisco.

Premium Beauty News - Environment is a major concern for you!

Stefano Bortoli - Absolutely, we have put in place important investments in recent years from the recovery of exhaust gases in our factories, the use of Biomass production with a plant of 17 megawatts that covers our electricity needs to the use of photovoltaic panels. And last but not least by using an increasing quantity of post-consumer recycled (PCR) glass, and putting in place a proactive policy and a financial commitment in creating Vetreco, a new cullet treatment plant in the centre of Italy.

Premium Beauty News - What are your strong points in terms of innovations during the last few months?

Stefano Bortoli - We have set up in Verreries Brosse a team focused on development. The first goal achieved by our team is an innovative manufacturing process, which brings more glass at the shoulder of the bottles to create thickness symmetry between the top and the bottom. The result of this process was the patented Up & Down bottles, which we launched in the market recently. With these amazing bottles, mainly focused on the niche or luxury perfumery, the fragrance is valorised at its best!

At Zignago Vetro we are working on the possibility to produce cosmetics with green glass (Cullet up to 90 %; PCR up to 75 %) greatly reducing CO2 emissions. The project has also been presented during the exhibition Make Up in Sustainable, a specific area of the MakeUp in Paris show dedicated to sustainable development. Besides, we are also working on other interesting new projects that will be unveiled at the next exhibitions.