Glass Packaging Modernization

The Polish beer market, fifth largest in Europe, allowed diversification opportunities as it leveraged its Polish investment experience into the Polish glass industry. In 1997, Harbin B.V. acquired Huta Sklaw Wyszkow, a manufacturer of beer bottles, and formed PolGlass Polska.

PolGalss Polska has had many lives; over a 120 years ago it started as the “Wyszkowska  Glassworks”,  as originally called, and on November 12, of 1906 it was renamed “Huta Szklana” and began production a year later, manufacturing bottles for vodkas, wines and green glass hand-formed beer bottles. WWII, put a pause on much of the glass production in Poland and in 1949, the factory was restarted and nationalized.

Now known as “Hutnik”, the glassworks was transformed into a sole-shareholder company and in 1997 it was purchased by Harbin B.V. and renamed PolGlass Polska. With new leadership, PolGlass Polska modernized, grew and gained new markets–catching the eye of UK-based global consumer packaging company Rexam. In 2004, Rexam acquired PolGlass from Harbin B.V.

As the second largest producer of green and amber glass packaging in Poland, PolGlass primarily supplied Heineken’s Polish subsidiary, Zywiec. This purchase gave Rexam, who also owned a flint glassworks, 20% of the market. Glass packaging was still very popular in western Europe where alternatives, such as aluminum, had not caught on.