The Gloine Chronicles:
Spotlight - Verescence in the United States
News Column
May/June of 2021
Verescence North America operates two facilities in the State of Georgia in the
United States of America. As part of one of largest glass manufacturers globally,
Verescence North America focuses on the USA beauty market, providing glass bottles for
leading manufacturers and retailers of fragrance, skin care and make up products.
Richard McDonough reports.
Mr. Mario Lopez is the General Manager of Verescence North America.
(The photograph was produced by Mr. Francisco Arroyo and was provided courtesy of Verescence.)
Verescence North America includes two factories in the State of Georgia in the United States of America. The business uses one plant for glass production and the second facility for decoration for glass products. Sales revenue was $61 million in 2019, and represented 15% of overall sales at Verescence. “Our business in the USA is focused on sales in the United States,” stated Mr. Mario Lopez, General Manager of Verescence North America.
“Born in the Glass Valley in France, Verescence has been able to deploy its glassmaking know-how across the Atlantic from 1996, with the construction of a glass manufacturing site in Covington, Georgia,” explained Mr. Lopez. “In 2002, we built a second factory in Sparta, Georgia, dedicated to decoration to provide better service to our customers.”
“Verescence North America is the unique prestige glass manufacturer for beauty in the USA, sourcing bottles and jars for fragrance, skin care and make up with large and innovative in-house decoration capabilities in spray, silk screening, hot stamping, pad printing, gluing, labelling, acid etching, and assembling,” continued Mr. Lopez. “Our glassmaking business for luxury perfumery and cosmetics requires the development of specific tools and machines that are unique in the world. It is a niche market for glass industry suppliers, and we seek strategic partnerships with the leaders of each specialty to co-innovate and co-develop specific equipment adapted to our activity.”
“Verescence North America supplies all major beauty players in the USA such as Estée Lauder, Victoria’s Secret, Bath & Body Works, Revlon, L’Oréal, Interparfums, Mary Kay, as well as several indie brands,” said Mr. Lopez.
According to his company biography, Mr. Lopez is an engineer, with a M.S. in industrial engineering and an Advanced Management Program from the IE Business School in Madrid, Spain. He has been working in the glass industry for the past two decades in several executive positions, including as Production Manager at Saint-Gobain (1998-2007), as Plant Manager at SGD Group (2007-2010), and as General Manager – Spain at Verescence (2010-2019). In 2019, Mr. Lopez became General Manager of Verescence North America.
Covington, Georgia
Verescence manufactures glass for the beauty market at its facility in Covington, Georgia.
(The photograph was provided courtesy of Verescence.)
Located along Technology Drive, the plant in Covington began operations in 1996. According to Verescence, 250 employees work in the 11,658 square meters building. The Newton County (Georgia) Office of Economic Development noted that the Verescence plant in Covington is one of the ten largest employers in that community. The facility includes one furnace (rated at 90 t/d) using oxy-combustion glass melting technology and four glass production lines with an annual manufacturing capacity of 100 million bottles. “We include Blow & Blow, Press & Blow, Back Press; Feeder coloration; and Thermoluster options at Covington,” stated Mr. Lopez. “Bottero of Italy and Tiama of France both provided equipment used at the Covington facility.”
Glass being manufactured at the Verescence facility in Covington, Georgia.
(The top photograph was produced by Mr. John Tilson and the two photos below were produced by Mr. Brian David Barnard.
All photographs were provided courtesy of Verescence.)
Environmental protections and sustainability are critical to the operations at the Covington plant, according to Mr. Lopez: “We reconstructed the furnace in 2019 with reduced energy consumption (reduction in gas consumption by 10%) as well as greenhouse gas emissions. These reductions not only involved enhanced furnace technology, but also affected the type of glass produced that has an impact on greenhouse gas emissions. That's why Verescence Covington will fully dedicate its furnace to the production of glass with 20% post-consumer recycled glass (PCR) sourced locally. The furnace will be operational to produce recycled glass by at the end of 2021. This year, we are also studying the de-carbonisation of our electricity as well as modifying water piping to use recycled water for cullet cooling. The local cluster dynamic enabled the integration this year of 80% of the bare glass sorting business.”
Recent investments by Verescence in its Covington facility “included more than $400,000 to adapt the furnace to the production of recycled glass in 2020-2021,” stated Mr. Lopez. “We also modernized the entire production area (hot and cold end) in 2019, by making numerous improvements both in terms of technology (latest generation IS machines [and] new automatic control machines) and in working conditions. In addition, we also reconstructed the furnace in June 2019 to increase it from a capacity of 75 to 90 tonnes. This 15 ton increase resulted in a 25% increase in capacity.”
Verescence inaugurated the new furnace at its Covington plant in the USA on 3 June 2019.
According to the Sustainability Report of Verescence, “Reconstruction of the furnace reduced the
environmental impact of the site and reduced energy consumption (reduction in gas consumption
by 10%), as well as greenhouse gas emissions. This work also provided the opportunity to modernize the
entire production area (hot and cold end) by making numerous improvements both in terms of technology
(latest generation IS machines, new automatic control machines, etc.) and in working conditions.”
(The photographs were produced by Mr. Brian David Barnard and were provided courtesy of Verescence, 2019.)
Sparta, Georgia
Verescence has a factory in Sparta, Georgia, “dedicated to decoration to provide better service to our customers,” said Mr. Lopez.
(The photograph was provided courtesy of Verescence.)
Verescence opened its facility in Sparta in 2002. According to the firm, 220 employees work in the 8,361 square meters building; the site has a capacity to decorate 90 million glass bottles annually. Among the services available at the Sparta facility are acid etching, gluing, hot stamping, labelling, lacquering, laser engraving, pad printing, and silk screening. Equipment in Sparta has been supplied, noted Verescence, from Kammann of Germany.
Glass on the line at the Verescence facility in Sparta, Georgia.
(The photographs were produced by Mr. Brian David Barnard
and were provided courtesy of Verescence.)
Verescence has continued to make major investments at the Sparta plant, including “increased capacity with one new hot-stamping line in 2020, increased quality with new generation of control cameras, and the further use of 3D printers.”
Mr. Lopez noted a number of sustainability and environmental efforts at the Sparta facility, including ending the use of solvent-based paints in 2019, and the reduction of associated VOC emissions; the recycling of non-decorated scrap glass; and using variable-speed compressors to reduce energy consumption during non-peak production periods by reducing air requirements. He explained that the use of a “…closed water system for the water curtain and collection of overspray (excess sprayed lacquer) eliminates the need for continuous use of water in the lacquering process, whilst the use of closed circuit treatment system for zero discharge into the environment in the acid-etching process. A partnership to promote the establishment of one of our lacquer suppliers in the United States allowed us to source 98.3% of our decoration raw materials within the southeastern part of the USA.” The company detailed in its Sustainability Report that “The production of our decoration tools on 3D printers in the United States has made it possible to replace the majority of imports from Europe for this category.”
Corporate Social Responsibility
Verescence is proud of its corporate social responsibility efforts and its adherence to high operational standards.
“In 2020, Verescence North America received the Platinum medal from EcoVadis, the highest level of recognition that distinguishes the top 1% of the world’s most advanced companies in terms of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR),” stated Mr. Lopez. “Both American factories comply with the highest international standards: ISO 9001 (Quality), ISO 22716 (GMP Cosmetics), ISO 14001 (Environment), and ISO 45001 (Safety).”
“Glass is a unique material that can be melted and recycled infinitely without any deterioration in its properties, unlike other packaging materials like plastic,” said Mr. Lopez. “We commonly think all glass bottles are recycled, but in reality, there is a lot of disparity between countries. Whilst Europe is a champion of recycling with efficient recycling channels and strong governments policies, less than 33% of glass bottles are recycled in the USA; the rest goes to the landfill.”
“At Verescence, we consider glass as a renewable resource,” Mr. Lopez continued. “Our factories recycle all scrap glass and we have been a pioneer in recycled glass for Perfumery and Cosmetics with our Verre Infini® (‘infinite glass’) that was launched in France in 2008. We will be the first major company to propose PCR glass worldwide for the beauty industry in 2021, with our 20% PCR glass manufactured in the USA starting Q4 2021. We anticipate the same at all Verescence sites. We also make it a point of honour to ban the development of a decoration technique that could hinder the recyclability of glass. In this way, we hope to contribute positively to the increase of glass recycling.”
COVID-19 Pandemic
“During the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Verescence North America operated between 70 and 75% of its business,” Mr. Lopez noted. “Due to the executive order of the State of Georgia, we had to shut down our activities for a period of 30 days in April 2020. However, our glass melting teams remained active to maintain our furnace as well as our logistics teams to supply our customers still in activity.”
“The COVID-19 Pandemic has strongly impacted travel retail with major impact on fragrance,” stated Mr. Lopez. “Business has been impacted by lower demand in fragrance (down about 30%), partly offset by increasing needs for glass in skin care and make up.”
Future Growth
“Whilst the COVID-19 Pandemic will still have an impact on our business during Q1 2021, we expect sustainability consciousness to move more items to glass, mostly in skin care, and the demand for more local sourcing to generate growth,” said Mr. Lopez. “We anticipate that growth in 2021 will catch back with growth to be at the level of 2019 with several new customers in our portfolio. We have the ambition to stay on course of our ‘Verescence 2022 - Forming the Future’ project.”
According to the firm, the ‘Verescence 2022 - Forming the Future’ strategic plan aims to make Verescence the global reference in the sustainable beauty industry: “Our strategic plan is structured in 5 pillars around sustainability:
• People First
• Customer Excellence
• Competitiveness
• One Verescence
• New Territories.
“It is supported by a planned €122 million investment which aims to improve industrial performance with investments in automation and digitisation, acceleration of innovation, and ambitious corporate social responsibility objectives.”
In addition, Verescence is continuing its workforce development efforts in the USA.
“Georgia Piedmont Technical College is proud to work with Verescence to provide workforce training through our Georgia Apprenticeship Program,” stated Dr. Irvin Clark, Vice President of Economic Development at Georgia Piedmont Technical College. “Working closely with Verescence, our regional manufacturing industry partners, and the Industrial Development Authority of Newton County, we have developed Georgia’s first and only U S Department of Labor registered apprenticeship programme that includes both Rockwell Automation and Georgia Piedmont Technical College curriculum. The apprenticeship program which is competency-based is three years in length and is facilitated in a hybrid format with classes taking place virtually and at Georgia Piedmont Technical College Advanced Manufacturing Center in Newton County.”
These workforce efforts along with the investments made in new equipment during recent years and future enhancements planned by Verescence North America indicate that the two plants in the State of Georgia will continue to be key parts of its global glass business.
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Contact Richard McDonough at gloinechronicles@gmail.com.
© 2021 Richard McDonough