Demand for container glass boosts Emhart sales

The increased demand for container glass helped boost Bucher Emhart Glass sales by 17.1% in 2018.

It said the state of the global economy and the trend in society towards more use of recyclable glass had led to manufacturers of glass containers expanding their production capacities.

In a statement it said: “Bucher Emhart Glass benefited from this exceptionally positive market environment and increased its sales significantly.”

Its cooperation with O-I, strong business in inspection machines and the complete takeover over of the Sanjin joint venture in China had also contributed to its improved result.

In its statement for the financial year 2018 it reported net sales of CHF 447 million compared to CHF381 million in 2017. Its operating profit (EBITDA) was CHF56 million compared to CHF 36 million the year previously.

The company added: “The very pleasing operating profit margin of 10.1% was due to the very good capacity utilisation, the optimisation programmes that were launched in recent years and the improvement at Sanjin.

The Swiss-based company anticipates that sales and the operating profit margin for 2019 will be on a par with the levels seen in the past year.