With this investment, Verallia, an industrial group wholly dedicated to glass packaging, pursues its strategy of operational excellence to optimize the quality of its products and services, and achieve its growth ambitions.

VOA’s furnace n°1 dedicated to very high quality extra-flint and flint glass production has been completely rebuilt, together with all its three production lines. Verallia has accordingly given itself the means to strengthen its positioning on the small and medium-run high-end markets. These new installations will also enable VOA to extend its partnerships with many customers who have, over the years, expressed a real preference for extra-flint glass, like Bacardi and the Perrin family, event sponsors for the furnace n°1 inauguration.

With this new equipment, VOA can count on extremely flexible manufacturing assets to ensure the continuous production of a wide range of bottles. Celebrating in 2016 its 120th anniversary, VOA employs over 300 people, makes 800,000 bottles a day, and produces over 350 different models a year.

This modernization also enhances safety and work station ergonomics, two priorities for Verallia. The plant’s employees have received up to 3,000 hours of training on this new equipment. Considerable progress has also been made in the area of environmental protection: through better combustion and the use of special refractories, furnace n°1 consumes less energy and its emissions are limited.

In the words of Verallia’s chairman and CEO, Jean-Pierre Floris: “This investment is decisive to guarantee our customers an exemplary level of manufacturing performance and service quality. Verallia is investing in VOA to serve our historical markets and underpin our strategy of differentiation in the high-end sector. With the backing of our shareholders, we shall go on growing our business in France and worldwide. We shall come back to Albi to open furnace n°2’s installations that will mark a new page in the history of VOA: the total modernization of the site, to strengthen its place in Verallia’s growth strategy.”

More than 200 people attended the inauguration of VOA’s new installations including customers, government and local authority officials, and senior executives from Verallia’s two shareholder funds, Apollo and Bpifrance.