That seems to be one of the primary drivers behind Anheuser-Busch, St. Louis, joining with Consumers Packaging (Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada) to purchase and reopen a Houston, TX, glass-making plant with the most modern equipment available.
The nation's largest brewer expects U.S. demand for its beer in glass bottles to top 9 billion units for '99. Meeting that demand cost-effectively has been difficult because U.S. glass plants aren't located near some of A-B's breweries. Last year, A-B generated vociferous criticism, much of it from the glass molders' union, when it contracted with a bottle-maker in Mexico to supply its Los Angeles brewery after at least two glass plants on the West Coast shut down operations. "Those closings really drove us to buy in Mexico," one brewery executive told Packaging World.
With demand for glass growing at its Houston brewery, A-B was desperate to find new capacity. Consumers Packaging was willing to work with A-B, but it was still in the process of incorporating the operations of its acquisition of Anchor Glass. Using a closed Anchor Glass plant, the two companies developed a joint venture to create a new $100-million plant specifically to serve the Houston brewery.
About five years ago, A-B was very seriously considering self-manufacture of glass bottles, and this year it reactivated that team of experts who had so recently studied--via a technical assistance agreement with Heye-Glas (Obernkirchen, Germany)--the most modern ways to make and ship glass bottles. The rejuvenated plant in Houston will employ a Heye machine, consisting of 20-section, double molds that produce the advanced no-neck press-and-blow bottles, an A-B source tells PW. Along the way, A-B says it gained some concessions from the glass molders' union that should guarantee the long-term viability of the rejuvenated plant. It probably also won at least a temporary reprieve from vitriolic union criticism.
