Record Investment for O-I Glass in France: €95 Million to Upgrade Plants in Gironcourt and Reims

O-I Glass, Inc (NYSE: OI) announced the company is investing €95 million into two of its French glass packaging production facilities. As a continuation of its modernization investment program, these significant investments aim to upgrade the sustainability, flexibility, and productivity of its operations in Gironcourt-sur-Vraine and Reims. This investment is consistent with O-I’s recently updated ESG roadmap which is aligned with our previously announced capital spending plan.

In Gironcourt, where the plant recently marked its 120th anniversary, €55 million will be invested in close cooperation with one of its key customers to rebuild a furnace and equip it with innovative GOAT technology (Gas Oxy Advanced Technology).
This innovative approach – already successfully implemented last year at the O-I plant in Vayres (France) – uses a mix of gas and oxygen to heat the furnace. In combination with a newly installed heat recovery system to pre-heat raw materials and recycled glass, the new installation is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by up to 18%.

In addition to the furnace upgrade, a production line at the plant will be modernized to further increase flexibility and capacity. An average of about 80% of the plant’s raw materials is comprised of scrap and locally recycled glass, underlining the circular and local nature of glass packaging.

The majority of the glass bottles produced in Gironcourt are supplied to customers by rail, reducing the number of trucks per week by about 250. The new expenditure into Gironcourt will increase the total investment into the site to almost €120 million since 2019 when O-I established an all-new third furnace in Gironcourt. The plant produces approximately 1.9 billion bottles a year, primarily for the beer market.

In Reims, O-I completed a €40 million investment for a major upgrade including the full renovation of one of the plant’s two furnaces and a production line, as well as the installation of all-new equipment. On top of multiple operational benefits, this also resulted in an overall energy reduction of about 5%.

In total, O-I has invested €90 million into the Reims site since 2019, when its other furnace was rebuilt—contributing to making it one of the most modern plants within O-I’s global footprint.

The Reims plant, which celebrated its 150 years anniversary in 2023, is a model for O-I’s overall sustainability efforts. An average of about 90% of its raw material consists of scrap and locally recycled glass (“cullet”). The high cullet rate is a major contributor in reducing the plant’s CO2 emissions by about 60% and fine particle emissions by about 80%. Since the 2019 investment, waste heat from glass packaging production has been recovered to be used in domestic homes in the local community.

The O-I plant in Reims is ideally located in the heart of the Champagne vineyards minimizing delivery routes and time to the wineries. The plant delivers champagne bottles to nearby customers with trucks powered by grapeseed and fryer oil resulting in about a 60% CO2 emission reduction compared to diesel fuel and about 80% less fine particles emissions.
The plant serves a highly diverse customer base serving more than 1,000 customers in France. It is able to produce bottles in three colors and in sizes ranging from 0.2l to Magnum. It produces 300 million bottles a year for the Champagne, Burgundy, Loire Valley, and Alsace markets.

For Walter Ferrer, Managing Director of O-I Glass for Southwest Europe, “these very significant investments are perfectly in line with the global approach adopted by O-I to reinforce our commitment to sustainable development, increase the energy efficiency of our equipment, create more resilient supply chains and constantly seek to improve the working conditions of our teams. They also demonstrate the confidence we have in our facilities in France, and our full commitment to serving our customers, our teams, and the planet.”