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Business Other Group Companies |
 Glass Packaging Business
In 1999, production of glass packaging reached 427,000 tons to meet the container demands coming from the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries. Product diversification resulted in an increase in domestic market sales, especially for mineral water bottles (23%) and beer bottles (40%), over the results of the preceding year. Basic activities include the production of blue bottles, in addition to green and amber; 60 new designs have been introduced during the year. Work on coloring and coating will continue to meet the diverse demands of the customers. Topkapı Şişe's addition to its product range this year was the eight liter container. The competitive strategy of the Business is increasing its market share by introducing new products while gaining an advantage against imported and substitute products. With regard to the food production industry, the reduction in the purchasing power of consumers and the decrease in inventories of the distribution channels caused a fall in demand. New, special and standard products however, have accelerated sales while favorable developments for packaging containers for vinegar, olive oil, tomatoes and their derivatives, have resulted in increased sales. Milk sector sales have increased by 6%, although there has been no improvement on per liter basis. Sales to carbonated beverages sector was under heavy pressure from substitute materials, which resulted in a further erosion of prices. Even though growth was negligible in 1999, it is hoped that sales will increase with the use of non-returnable small bottles. Customers have requested that pharmaceutical bottles be produced in a sterile environment that requires no pre-washing. Therefore, the packaging unit at Topkapı Şişe has been enclosed in a ‘Clean Chamber' and investments that are necessary to meet Class 100,000 requirements have been completed. Efforts to increase the number of international target countries and
their market share have been accelerated. Consequently, market shares in
Algeria and Morocco in North Africa, Israel in the Middle East and Germany
in Europe have improved. The Glass Packaging Business is also
among the first suppliers of glass packaging for food products to Greece.
By securing a strong market foothold in this country, Şişecam has taken
measures to prevent any negative effect on exports.
Glass packaging is very important to human health and the protection of the environment. The collection of cullet used in the glass industry as a raw material has been widespread throughout the country, increasing the number of ‘bottle banks' allocated in more than 40 municipalities, nine of which are located in metropolitan areas. Molds and models of the previous facility were adapted to new production plant of Ferro Döküm, which became operational in 1998. Negotiations with companies about the requirements of the European automotive sector were carried out and offers were submitted. Orders, some of which will be delivered in the next year, have been received. Besides meeting the mold requirements of the Group, Camiş Makine ve Kalıp produced H28 glassware machines and continued to supply the defense industry. This company could not achieve a viable allocation of its activities into different business lines within economic scales. Therefore it was restructured to focus on and to specialize in mold production for the glass industry. Targets for the year 2000 have been determined within this framework. Since 1995, Tezsan has been negatively affected by the import of machine
tools, unfair competition and the crisis that emerged in the Far East and
Russia. Consequently, the production at this plant stopped completely at
the end of 1999.
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