Quinn Glass & Ardagh, led by Irish business rivals Sean Quinn & Paul Coulson, could hold 60% between them of the UK's glass packaging market, worth £600M by the end of 2006. For this to occur, Quinn Glass needs its new plant at Ince in Cheshire to overcome a legal challenge & become fully operational over the next few months. The plant will have the capacity to produce 1.2BN containers/pa, or 16% of the UK market. Industry research suggests that Ardagh's share of the market will fall from 50% to between 40-45% when Quinn is in full production. In 2004, Ardagh had a turnover of about £322M, of which £180M came from the UK. Quinn says glass operations account for less than 10% of group's turnover & will continue to do so even after the new business is in full production.
