PJSC Vetropack Gostomelsk Glass Works (Kyiv Region) has resumed operations, having started warming up and bringing it to operating temperature, as well as loading the first glass furnace; the first glass is expected to be produced in June, the plant’s press service said.
“The domestic market is slowly resuming, and many companies have restarted production. We expect demand for food and beverage glass containers to increase by about 7% in 2023 compared to the previous year, in parallel with the development of our production facilities,” said Pavel Prinko, general director of Vetropack in Ukraine and Moldova.
According to the company, Vetropack will start with the production of colorless glass for food and beverages, as the company now sees the greatest demand for it. The second glass furnace will be commissioned in the near future.
Protection of employees will be a priority in the resumption of operations. In addition, the production site is prepared for all possible emergency scenarios. Vetropack Holding has developed various engineering scenarios to ensure power supply during a power outage. The power distribution system has been rebuilt and additional generators have been installed. There are also appropriate plans in place for possible natural gas outages, the company’s press office said.
The company reminded that before the war Vetropack in Ukraine produced different types of glass containers on three furnaces and eight production lines. On February 24, 2022 the production was stopped for security reasons. One of the three furnaces at the plant was destroyed due to military action. The losses forced the company to cut about two-thirds of its roughly 600 jobs at the plant. Vetropack has now hired 139 new employees to restart production from among its former employees.
In the summer of 2022, Vetropack created a fund to support employees who were seriously injured or whose homes or apartments were destroyed. Money was donated by employees of other businesses, business partners and customers, and CHF960,000 was raised in a few months. In early 2023, the Gostomel Holding Vetropack fund began its first payments. In April 2023, Vetropack supported more than 50 affected colleagues.
Vetropack Gostomel Glassworks PJSC since 2006 is a part of European Vetropack Group, a large producer of glass containers with production plants in Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Czech Republic, Croatia and Slovakia. Produces containers for domestic producers of food and beverages – more than 600 million pieces per year.
The main market for manufactured containers is Ukraine, the main customers – Sun InBev Ukraine, Carlsberg Ukraine, Coca-Cola, Obolon PJSC, Radomyshl Brewery, Persha Privatna Brovarnya LLC, KIM Ltd.
“Vetropack Gostomel Glass Plant,” according to opendatabot.ua, in 2022, reduced its assets by 1.6 times to 1.52 billion UAH. The losses of the company reached 903.66 million UAH, compared with 140.88 million UAH of profit in 2021. Income of the company in 2022 decreased 3.9 times to UAH 621.52 mln.
Vetropack Group (Switzerland) currently has about 3 thousand employees in seven countries, produces about 4.5 billion pieces of glass containers annually.
