Good news for glass plant?

Is it good news or bad news?
That’s the inevitable question when a little-known Mega-Huge Corp. buys a company with a local presence.
So that’s the question that comes to mind with news that Ardagh Group, an Irish-backed and Luxumbourg-based company, is engaged in the acquisition of Verallia North America, a division of the French company Saint-Gobain, which owns and operates a glass container plant in Dunkirk.
All of the international implications of the preceding paragraph are a little bit mind-blowing.
But after sorting through the available information on all of the entities involved, we come to one clear conclusion: It’s very good news.
All of these companies are so enormous that it’s easy for ordinary individuals and ordinary concerns to get crushed underfoot.
The scenario is all too familiar: A small company with a clear mission gets swallowed up by a larger company, then that company is swallowed again, then again, until the mission of the original company bears little or no resemblance to the goals of the parent company.
Some of that happened with Saint-Gobain.
The larger company’s interests lay in the area of producing glass for the building materials industry.
The somewhat less profitable glass container industry wasn’t the prime focus.
On the plus side, Saint-Gobain recognized that disparity in views and tried to figure out how to spin the glass container business off on its own.
The good news, the very good news we believe, is that through the pending transaction with Ardagh Group, the glass container business is now in good hands.
Ardagh Group started as the Irish Glass Bottle Co. You can’t get much more down to earth than that. And you can’t get much closer to the core business mission of the Dunkirk plant.
Bottom line: If you’re someone making glass bottles in Dunkirk, your soon-to-be employer is someone who understands and values the making of glass bottles.
The new owners aren’t likely to view the Dunkirk operation as superfluous or expendable.
 Instead — because of the plant’s extraordinary records in terms of quality control, safety, and employee relations — the new owners could see it as the jewel in the crown.
Because they understand the industry, they’ll understand the Dunkirk plant’s strengths. That, at least, is our hope.
And in an age of global commerce and giant corporations, that may just be as good as it gets. — J.R.

[[In-content Ad]]