Frigoglass is a strategic partner to beverage brands throughout the world. The company's website states they are the global leader in the Ice Cold Merchandisers (ICM) market and the principal supplier of glass packaging in the high growth markets of West Africa. Frigoglass recently announced the integration of its Turkey-based manufacturing volume into its European flagship plant in Timisoara, Romania. As part of this process, Frigoglass’ Silivri-based Turkish manufacturing plant will cease operations by the end of 2014. Through this consolidation of its European operations, Frigoglass will significantly improve its cost structure and strengthen long-term competitiveness. The commercial and customer service activities in Turkey will be seamlessly continued during the integration period and beyond. With this step, Frigoglass is right-sizing its manufacturing capacity to the lower level of demand in Europe over the past few years. The continued productivity improvements following the implementation of Lean manufacturing principles in their Romanian plant have made available sufficient capacity to absorb the volume from Turkey and meet any potential future demand. A reconfigured supply chain will ensure customers in Turkey and in other European markets are provided with excellent quality products at short lead times. This integration process will also enable the effective consolidation of Frigoglass’ product range in Europe towards an innovative modular platform covering all existing applications. This will reduce complexity, drive cost efficiency through scale and safeguard excellent quality. On top of this, Frigoglass will maintain its innovation commitment and invest in additional Product Development resources in Romania. Based on this, the company plans to enhance customer responsiveness and create value through innovative cooler solutions for customers. Frigoglass will provide an update on the expected annualized cost savings and related restructuring costs at the time of announcement of its 2014 second quarter results on 7 August.
