3 June 1999: Pittsburgh, US glassmaker John J. Ghaznavi is merging Glenshaw Glass into his other glass companies, a move that he said will give the 600-employee operation in Shaler access to the resou…
3 June 1999: Pittsburgh, US glassmaker John J. Ghaznavi is merging Glenshaw Glass into his other glass companies, a move that he said will give the 600-employee operation in Shaler access to the resources of a much bigger corporation. According to a recent report, no jobs should be affected by the “bookkeeping” move that will put Glenshaw, with US$ 100 million in sales, under Consumers Packaging Inc., a Canadian company that also owns Anchor Glass Container Corp. in Tampa, Florida. Consumers Packaging has total annual sales of US$ 1.3 billion. According to the report, Ghaznavi bought all three when they were in trouble, but he has managed to improve efficiency and boost sales. He credits some of turnaround to building stronger relationships with the beer industry. “The beermaker is the bread and butter of glass manufacturing,” he said. Anchor Glass, for example, had lost most of its Anheuser-Busch business by the time Consumers bought the company in 1997. The company recently announced a deal to provide all the bottles for the brewer“s Jacksonville, Florida and Cartersville, Georgia breweries. The order could increase Anchor“s sales as much as 10%, the report said. To meet the new demand, Anchor will spend US$ 45 million on new equipment for its Jacksonville and Warner Robins, Georgia plants. Ghaznavi said the five-year contract probably saved the Jacksonville plant and the 500 jobs there. Anchor Glass employs about 4,500 people at ten US locations. Ghaznavi said the management of all three operations has already been merged, although corporate offices have been maintained in Tampa, Toronto and Shaler. There“s been some discussion of physically consolidating the administration after the merger with Glenshaw Glass is complete, but no decision has been made yet.