Ardagh will invest £335m in manufacturing facilities across Europe over the next few years to help deliver an "improved business performance." The programme will involve closing some facilities in the UK, Germany & Poland, but an Ardagh spokeswoman said there would be "no enforced redundancies in the UK". The Irish firm owns a number of furnaces that are coming to the end of their lives, & rebuilding them would "represent a significant investment". "We've got to look at investment across the group as a whole, to see where it makes the most economic sense," said the spokeswoman. "There will, however, be no reduction in capacity in the UK or Europe." The firm will balance closures by reopening previously closed capacity in Germany & UK & building a new furnace in the Netherlands. The company currently operates 22 mfg facilities, with 47 furnaces, in 7 EU countries. Ardagh became Europe's third largest glass manufacturer, with annual sales of approximately £850m, when it bought Rexam's container glass division last March.
