Carl-August Heinz
“350 years and looking younger and more dynamic than ever!” one would be tempted to add. Because each succeeding decades composing the Group’s long history has enabled the company to go through a number of key stages. The last one which occurred during the last decade was probably the most radical one for a Group operating both in the glass and plastic segment. “Radical,” underlines Carl-August Heinz, “as we helped our Group, especially concerning glass, to probably make one of its biggest strategic shift in its whole history.”
The turning point of 1999!
From a glassmaker manufacturing a very high bandwidth of different more likely mass market, non-sophisticated products (bottles flacons, jars) mainly delivered to the liqueur and cosmetic industries, we decided at the turn of the century to specialize mainly in the higher end of the perfumery and cosmetic segment to become "global" in order to meet the needs of increasingly demanding customers on all continents. A decision which will lead to huge investments in production capacity, in decoration processing, in new overseas locations but also investments in educational programs for employees working in production units or business teams to help them reach the level of training required.
“For decoration processes only our investments amount to 15 million euros over eleven years!” says Carl-August Heinz.
And the company successfully met the challenge in terms of marketing strategy! Major perfume and cosmetics launches to which Heinz-Glas was associated prove it, like: Opium, Ricci Ricci, Challenge by Lacoste, Zen by Shiheido and DK Pure by Donna Karan.
The challenge was also successfully met in terms of adaptation, flexibility and industrial capacity! Heinz-Glas owns in the world no less than five glass factories, two in Germany (Kleintettau and Piesau), one in Poland (Dzialdowo), one in Peru (Heinz Ferrand Glas) and one in China (3 Star Hangzhou Sanxing Craftwork Glass Co. Ltd), without forgetting dedicated production units for decoration in Germany and Czech Republic (four lacquering lines, with a capacity of 120 million units per year, twelve automatic screen printing lines, two CNC screen printing lines, two pad printing lines, two frosting lines, two metallization workshops). Tools that can produce annually about 1.5 billion bottles and jars thanks to nine furnaces and 30 production lines.
“And that’s not the end of it,” insists Carl-August Heinz, “since the next investments will concern both our plant in Peru, where we plan to install on a medium-term basis a new furnace and China where we will increase the capacity as well. Always with the goal to serve our customers wherever they are, wherever they go!”
The "plastics" activity itself, is not outdone (500 people, 60 million euros in turnover), far from it! With a total of five production sites in Germany, Poland, China and since last year in Switzerland with the take-over of the company Ganahl AG near Zurich and North America, Heinz Plastics, has among other goals, to become a major player in the pharma segment, but also in the high value added segment of bottles and vials. “This is what motivated our choice to buy Ganahl”, explains Carl-August Heinz. “A company with 70 employees highly specialized in the design of very sophisticated moulds for the plastic industry and in particular with a specialty of producing high end vials for mascaras and lipgloss.”
The objective being: "to become a global player”
“An objective which is within reach,” underlines Carl-August Heinz. “Thanks to the women and men of the Heinz Group, at all levels, we are really getting close to our goal. We are making a little more progress every day, technically to meet perfection. We have at heart to train all our teams both in research and monitoring but also commercially and industrially speaking to be at the highest level of expressed needs. The fact of being a family-owned Group driven by a vision based on the durability of the firm and focusing on values of respect, work and self-fulfilment essential to the smooth running of the company is in itself a strong guarantee for the future which can only reassure our customers. The gone through road is a proof of that. The path ahead is already paved for us.”
