Changed market situation: Vetropack postpones heat-up of furnace in Kyjov, Czech Republic to early 2024

11.10.2023: The Vetropack Group, one of Europe's leading glass packaging manufacturers, announced today that it is postponing the heat-up of the new melting furnace at its Czech site in Kyjov until early 2024. With this postponement of a few months, Vetropack is reacting to the changed market situation in the European market for glass packaging.

“Following a thorough analysis of the current market development, we have come to the conclusion that postponing the heat-up of the furnace is the right decision at this time,” explains Johann Reiter, CEO of the Vetropack Group. The decision is rooted in the changed consumer behaviour as a result of inflation: demand for glass packaging in Central Europe has decreased. Hence, less production capacity is currently required than was expected at the beginning of the year.

“As a financially sound company, we monitor the development of the market very closely to be able to react promptly to any changes – which is what we are doing right now,” says Johann Reiter. “The active management of our production and storage capacities is part of our market strategy and ensures that we can continue to make decisions from a position of strength.”

The postponement does not change the long-term plans for the development of the site in Kyjov, which recently celebrated its 140th anniversary. The overhaul of the furnace is running successfully and will be completed within the planned time frame. The two state-of-the-art NIS machines for particularly precise and efficient control of the glass forming process will also be commissioned in early 2024. “We see the current market situation as temporary,” Johann Reiter emphasises. “Therefore, the goal is to successfully complete all current projects by 2024 so that we can hit the ground running when market demand picks up again.”

About Vetropack Group

At Vetropack, we enable people to enjoy food and beverages as safely as possible by providing solutions that combine optimum elegance with maximum responsibility. We view glass as the most sustainable packaging solution – and the perfect material to ensure that food is packaged safely. Our holistic Service plus+ approach helps our customers to optimise their value chains and guarantee consumers' safety. Close, long-lasting relationships are the hallmarks of our collaboration with partners. Guided by our understanding of environmental responsibility and cost efficiency, we aim to minimise our carbon footprint throughout the supply chain, and we are committed to recycling as the key to optimising product life-cycles.

Vetropack Group is one of Europe's leading manufacturers of glass packaging for the food and beverage industry with around 4,000 employees and net revenues of CHF 899.4 million in 2022. Vetropack has state-of-the-art production facilities as well as sales and distribution offices in Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Slovakia, Ukraine, Italy, the Republic of Moldova and Romania.