4 June 1998: Germany“s Oberland Glas AG (Bad Wurzach), majority owned by France“s Saint-Gobain SA, suffered a decline in earnings in 1997, and the management board is reluctant to make a forecast fo…
4 June 1998: Germany“s Oberland Glas AG (Bad Wurzach), majority owned by France“s Saint-Gobain SA, suffered a decline in earnings in 1997, and the management board is reluctant to make a forecast for 1998 given difficult market conditions for container glass, recent reports say. There is no sign of growth on the domestic market, where 79% of revenues were secured in 1997. The company is having to contend with oversupply and competing materials. As a counter measure, the advantages of container glass, such as its environmental potential, are to be highlighted. With the sale of a problem stake in Ruhr Kristall Glas GmbH (Essen) on 1 January 1997, which represented a withdrawal from industrial glass for Oberland, the company no longer produces consolidated group figures. The AG“s activities are restricted to container glass and flat glass, reports say. Oberland saw turnover fall 1.6% to DM 674.5 million in 1997. Container glass contributed DM 629.1 million, while flat glass accounted for DM 40.90 million. Services made up DM 2.7 million. Ordinary operating profits fell 11% to DM 47.1 million. Reductions in costs and rationalisation went some way to countering the effects of lower prices. Net profits was little changed at DM 26.5 million.