Economic difficulties are being reported from the Bernsdorf glassworks. Radio Lausitz reports that at O-I, production will be suspended starting in mid-September. The broadcaster quotes company spokesman Stefan Weinmann as saying that the company is forced to take this step.

What exactly that means remains unclear. The roughly 100 employees have been informed about the production stop. The report also includes the information that the melting furnace will not be shut down. This is significant because of the time required to restart such a facility.

Because this usually takes several weeks, if not months, since the reheating process to over a thousand degrees Celsius must be carried out slowly and in a controlled manner to avoid damage. The last time this happened was about half a decade ago in connection with a major modernization. (2019)

The U.S. parent company Owens-Illinois, which has owned the Bernsdorf plant since 2004, had invested more than 20 million euros. Operations were shut down for half a year for that purpose. Bernsdorf’s main customer is Jägermeister.

Stefan Weinmann explains that when production is suspended, the employees will remain employed and will, for example, continue to supervise the running melting furnace or take part in further training and courses.

Bernsdorf’s mayor Harry Habel (CDU) told Radio Lausitz that he had heard O-I was planning restructuring measures. He said he had contacted both Jägermeister and Minister President Michael Kretschmer (CDU). O-I Germany has four locations.The other three are located in the North Rhine-Westphalian state capital Düsseldorf (offices) as well as in Holzminden and Rinteln, both in Lower Saxony.

Of the 150 million bottles produced per year, 97 percent go to customers in the spirits industry. Jägermeister, Unicum, Becherovka, and Mümmelmann are some of the well-known names. Bottles are delivered to England and Scotland, and Italian olive oil is also bottled in containers from Bernsdorf.