HEINZ-GLAS: Rising to Every Challenge!

Over the past two years, the German group HEINZ-GLAS has continued to invest heavily in both growth and sustainable development. Today, the group operates 17 sites in 12 countries around the world, employs approximately 4,000 people, and generated annual revenue of 448 million euros in 2025, a significant portion of which comes from exports. Carletta Heinz, CEO, explains.

You are undoubtedly one of the oldest glass manufacturers in the world, specializing in packaging for the fragrance and cosmetics industries!

Carletta Heinz: That’s correct! My family comes from a glassmaking tradition dating back to 1523; our company was officially founded in 1622, and the group is still led by the 13th generation of the founding family. As a global supplier, we develop, manufacture, decorate, and distribute complete packaging solutions. Our core competencies include in-house design and development, custom mold manufacturing, state-of-the-art glass production technology, and a wide range of decoration and finishing options. HEINZ-GLAS is particularly renowned for its high-quality glass perfume bottles and cosmetic jars, which combine technical excellence, exceptional design, and numerous customization options.

That’s been a lot of investment in recent months!

Carletta Heinz: The expansion of our decoration center in Spechtsbrunn in 2025, at a cost of 4 million euros, was clearly a major milestone for us, as it enabled us to offer a wide range of decoration technologies under one roof. But that’s not all! Among the other investments made in 2025, it’s worth noting the implementation of the SAP system in Germany and the renewal of the machinery in our molding shop. In 2026, one of the most significant projects was the renovation of the furnace at the Kleintettau site, which involved the installation of a new, fully electric glass melting furnace at a cost of approximately 13 million euros. This furnace operates on electricity without CO₂ emissions, thereby reinforcing HEINZ-GLAS’s sustainability strategy. Since 2024, all of our production sites in Germany have been equipped with this all-electric glass melting technology, powered by CO₂-free electricity. Finally, on a global scale, the major investments made at our various international sites this year and last year included, notably, two furnace repairs at the Działdowo site in Poland, the installation of a fourth production line at the Changzhou site in China, and the creation of a new decoration plant in Brazil. Not to mention several automation projects across all sites.
I’d also like to mention another ongoing investment: the conversion of a former company-owned conference center into a corporate daycare center for our employees’ children, which is also open to the public.

How is the current energy crisis affecting your business?

Carletta Heinz: The current economic climate remains challenging for many industrial companies, and rising costs naturally continue to put pressure on our business. Energy price increases and the availability of energy sources are major factors that we are monitoring very closely. In Germany, all of our production sites use fully electric glass melting furnaces, which means our operations are obviously highly exposed to fluctuations in the price of this energy source. This is all the more true given that energy costs remain high in Germany, which poses a significant challenge and represents a clear competitive disadvantage compared to manufacturers operating in regions where energy prices are lower. Persistent geopolitical tensions, particularly the conflicts in the Middle East, continue to contribute to volatility in global energy markets and place additional pressure on energy-intensive industries such as glass manufacturing. Rising energy costs therefore remain one of the heaviest burdens on our business, particularly in Europe. We remain, of course, committed to ensuring not only the reliability of our supply chains but also our operational efficiency and the high quality standards expected by our customers. The current energy cost environment requires us to constantly adapt and rigorously manage our costs.

In terms of the environment, what are your strengths and your strategy in this area? You are a glass manufacturer, but you also use plastic.

Carletta Heinz: Sustainability is a central pillar of HEINZ-GLAS’s corporate strategy. As a family-owned business with over 400 years of history, we have successfully combined traditional craftsmanship with sustainable, forward-looking production. Our approach is based on a comprehensive circular economy model, combining efficient use of resources with innovative packaging solutions. We actively support the principles of circular design through refillable and reusable packaging concepts, while taking advantage of glass’s inherent recyclability.

Overall, we prioritize reducing CO₂ emissions and eco-design. Furthermore, the integration of recycled materials into glass production is essential to enabling us to balance our environmental responsibility with the exceptional standards of quality and performance expected in the luxury packaging sector.

Furthermore, we implement a wide range of climate protection measures, including waste heat recovery, photovoltaic systems, and the widespread use of electric melting technology. Since 2015, we have reduced CO₂ emissions per gram of glass produced by 56%. Since 2016, all of our German sites have been operating exclusively on CO₂-free electricity, and since 2024, all of our German production facilities have been using fully electric glass melting furnaces powered by CO₂-free electricity. HEINZ-GLAS continues on the path to electrification. This transition is taking place globally wherever possible.
It is accompanied by other R&D projects focusing on other stages of the manufacturing process, such as feeders, cooling lines, and furnaces used in the decoration process, among others. Everything is gradually being electrified. The goal is to completely eliminate fossil fuels from our entire production process in the future.

In addition, we are actively participating in other industry-wide initiatives, such as “Close the Glass Loop,” to further improve the environmental performance of the entire packaging value chain. Our ambition is clear: to be the most sustainable company in our industry.

Regarding the use of plastics, although glass remains our material of choice due to its premium appearance, excellent recyclability, and suitability for circular packaging solutions, it is clear that plastic components are still necessary in certain packaging applications.

Thanks to our plastic production facility in Działdowo, Poland, we manufacture high-quality plastic caps and closures, enabling us to offer comprehensive packaging solutions under one roof. These components complement our range of glass packaging and allow us to meet a wide variety of our customers’ requirements.

You’ve contributed to numerous product launches in recent months…

Carletta Heinz: That’s right—there have been many, as the Group is renowned for its glass perfume bottles and cosmetic jars, which combine technical excellence, exceptional design, and numerous customization options. This also reflects the company’s strong international presence and its reputation as a global leader in the luxury packaging sector.

Our contribution to the magnificent launch of Yves Saint Laurent’s “Libre Vanille Couture” is one example. This iconic bottle transforms into a precious and wild jewel, adorned both inside and out. It is a haute couture piece that is both bold and ultra-feminine, reflecting daring sophistication and warm sensuality. We can also highlight Darphin Paris’s “Brand” bottle and Prada’s “Paradigme,” whose bottle piques curiosity with its elegant architectural silhouette, highlighting Prada’s iconic slanted triangle inside the glass. Its gradient ranging from green to black reflects Prada’s iconic color palette—an object of elegance and a statement of modernity. Not to mention Jil Sander and her first luxury fragrance collection, “Olfactory Series 1,” consisting of six unisex fragrances. We were also very proud to announce that one of our products, “Les Essences” by Diptyque, won the 2025 Fragrance Foundation UK Award in the “Best New Fragrance Collection” category. The same goes for Kering’s Bottega Veneta fragrance collection, which also received an award at the 2025 Fragrance Foundation UK Awards in the “Responsible Design and Packaging” category. And we’d like to thank the entire Shiseido team once again for the trust they placed in us to bring the magnificent Zadig & Voltaire project to life. And what can we say about the launch of Audace with Interparfums and the award won in the “Limited Edition” category by Puig’s Rabanne collection at the 2025 PCD Innovation Awards…

Finally, we must mention the resounding success achieved by HEINZ-GLAS in the “Best Sustainable Product/Solution Design” category at the Luxepack New York trade show in May 2026, where we ranked among the top three in the “Best Sustainable Product/Solution” category, out of 36 international entries.
This award further strengthened our position as a global leader in innovative and sustainable packaging solutions in the high-end segment. The award was presented for our standard bottle, “Primo – Sunset Edition”. This bottle perfectly illustrates our commitment to consistently combining design, functionality, high quality, and sustainability.