Bruno Bogaert

80 million euros in turnover, a factory in Masnières in northern France, the perfume and cosmetic division of Bormioli Rocco will therefore be gathering a great deal of attention from leaders of a group that employs a total of 2,600 people scattered in nine plants in Europe (glass and plastic) and which has a strong presence in the pharmaceutical sector (170 million euros), tableware (250 million euros in turnover), and the food industry (65 million euros).

"Many things have changed," explains Bruno Bogaert, new Perfume and Cosmetic Managing Director. "Our group has decided with its financial partner, Vision Capital, to invest heavily in the Verreries de Masnières. A modernization, that implies repairing some furnaces but also improving the performance of production lines and increasing our production capacity in terms of decoration, not only in screen printing but also in lacquering and hot stamping." A decoration workshop which was built in 2009 and currently hosts about 50 employees who can rely on seven screen printing lines and five annealing arches.

Investments in "men"

"Most of all," emphasises Bruno Bogaert, "we have to be more reactive to our customers requirements but also more competitive. This means efficient investments in our glass-making activity but also a diversification of our decoration equipments."

Jean-Luc Leblond

Investments in equipments relayed in recent months by a significant renewal of the technical and sales teams, since nine executives joined the teams since the beginning of 2012, with the creation of four positions.

"Commercially speaking", explains Jean-Luc Leblond, Commercial Director, "we have not only increased our capacity to respond with the addition of new sales reps. but we now are in direct contact on export markets, especially the United States which now accounts for nearly 20% of our turnover."

Another asset of the Verreries de Masnières, but not the least, a supply, almost unique in the industry, of its raw materials (especially sand) using inland waterway transports! Quite cost-efficient since a barge can deliver at once 350 tons of sand (as against 20 tons for a lorry) and.... ecological too.