O-I Glass to upgrade plants in Gironcourt and Reims, France

O-I Glass has announced that the company is investing EUR 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 their previously announced capital spending plan.

In Gironcourt, where the plant recently marked its 120th anniversary, EUR 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 percent.

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 percent of the plant’s raw materials is comprised of scrap and locally recycled glass, underlining the circular and local nature of glass packaging.

In Reims, O-I completed a EUR 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 percent.

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 percent 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 percent and fine particle emissions by about 80 percent. Since the 2019 investment, waste heat from glass packaging production has been recovered to be used in domestic homes in the local community.

The plant serves a highly diverse customer base serving more than 1,000 customers in France. It is able to produce bottles in three colours and in sizes ranging from 0.2 litre to Magnum. It produces 300 million bottles a year for the Champagne, Burgundy, Loire Valley and Alsace markets.