Glass packaging manufacturer Owens-Illinois (OI) has expanded its European production capacity for beverage packaging in black glass.
The US company has invested in its plant at Leerdam in the Netherlands, to be able to produce black glass bottles for beer. In 2013, OI completed an asset optimization program worth 21 million euros in Leerdam.
The plant is located in the heart of the European brewing industry and is the third OI plant making black glass bottles in Europe. To date, OI has made black glass packaging for premium wines and spirits in France and Scotland. In the coming year, OI will offer two beer bottle standard formats in black glass. The decision to boost black glass, was based on a market research study in the US and in Europe about the perception of coloured glass by consumers, the company said. As a result, OI found significant potential for black glass. Consumers associate fascinating experiences of pleasure of a distinctive and unique quality with black glass packaging.
OI developed its black glass methods about five years ago. It is a process that allows full inspection capability and corresponding quality control. Black glass packaging protects products particularly well against light and UV rays. Black glass bottles can be recycled together with amber glass. Some product solutions for black glass that OI has developed with its customers are already successful in the market: In the beer segment Miller Coors is represented by the newly developed premium beer Miller Fortune, which was presented in January in the US. In Europe, black glass packaging by OI is used by William Grant & Sons for its Hendrick’s Gin, and by Edrington for its whiskys The Black Grouse and Cutty Sark Prohibition. The French wine house Luc Belaire uses a black glass bottle by OI for its sparkling rosé Belaire.