The perfume bottle production plant opened six months ago by France“s Saint-Gobain at Covington, near Atlanta, Georgia, US, is now turning out around 250,000 bottles a day for companies including Avo…
The perfume bottle production plant opened six months ago by France“s Saint-Gobain at Covington, near Atlanta, Georgia, US, is now turning out around 250,000 bottles a day for companies including Avon, Estee Lauder and Elizabeth Arden. So far, one furnace is operational, but Saint-Gobain plans to eventually have three furnaces operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Their Mers-Les-Bains, France, bottle production factory runs on seven furnaces. The company reportedly chose Covington for two main reasons: the proximity to a good supply of high-quality low-iron sand, important in producing glass that is clear, and the growing strength of Atlanta as an international business city. Saint-Gobain also received state support. Georgia officials worked with the company under their QuickStart programme to help pay for the screening of potential employees and the training of new staff. The plant now has 130 full-time employees, as well as a group of part-time local women who work as bottle inspectors. The majority of employees were sent to France for two to three months of training prior to the opening of the factory. The US glassmaking process follows the same system employed at Saint-Gobain“s Mers-Les-Bains factory. With the opening of its new US factory, Saint-Gobain plans to become the leader in perfume bottle production in the United States by the year 2000.