Company Description
O-I Glass, Inc. (NYSE: OI) is a manufacturing company focused on glass container production, with a particular emphasis on glass bottles and jars. According to the company’s disclosures, glass is central to its identity: O-I describes glass as beautiful, pure, healthy, and completely recyclable, and characterizes it as the most sustainable rigid packaging material. The company’s common stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol OI.
O-I Glass is headquartered in Perrysburg, Ohio (USA). The company states that it is one of the leading producers of glass bottles and jars around the globe and that it serves many of the world’s leading food and beverage brands as a preferred partner. Its business is built around supplying glass packaging that helps build and support consumer brands in food and beverage categories.
O-I reports that it operates through a large industrial footprint, with a diverse team of approximately 21,000 people working across 69 plants in 19 countries. This footprint underpins its role as a global glass container manufacturer and supports its relationships with food and beverage customers in multiple regions. The company has reported net sales or revenues of $6.5 billion in 2024, reflecting the scale of its operations, although specific financial figures will change over time as new results are reported.
Business focus and industry role
O-I Glass operates in the glass container manufacturing industry within the broader manufacturing sector. Its principal business activity, as described in its financial communications, is the production of glass containers. The company positions glass as a sustainable alternative within rigid packaging and emphasizes attributes such as recyclability and product purity. This framing is central to how O-I explains its role in the packaging value chain.
In its public materials, O-I highlights its collaboration with food and beverage brands to create glass packaging that supports brand identity. The company states that it innovates in line with customers’ needs to develop iconic packaging, indicating a focus on design, performance, and brand differentiation within glass containers. While detailed product categories and end markets are not fully enumerated in the provided materials, the company consistently references bottles and jars for food and beverages as its core output.
Geographic footprint and operations
O-I’s 69 plants in 19 countries indicate a broad international manufacturing base. The company’s press releases and SEC filings reference activity in regions such as the Americas and Europe, including segment operating results for these regions. O-I also notes that France is a strategic market for the company, and it has described specific French plants and headquarters functions in the context of operational reviews and potential changes.
The company’s operations are organized in part by region, with reporting that distinguishes between the Americas and Europe. Segment operating profit discussions in earnings releases reference sales volumes, net price, and operating costs in these regions, reflecting how O-I evaluates performance across its network. Initiatives such as production curtailments, furnace suspensions, and plant closures are discussed in relation to optimizing capacity and inventory levels.
Customers and market positioning
O-I Glass describes itself as the preferred partner for many of the world’s leading food and beverage brands. This indicates that its customer base includes large, established companies in these sectors, although specific customer names are not listed in the provided materials. The company emphasizes that its packaging helps build brands around the world, underscoring the importance of glass container design and quality to its value proposition.
In France, O-I describes itself as a major player and employer and notes that France remains a strategic market for the company. The company has discussed potential investments in its French plants as part of its capital plan, aiming to support the development of glass usage and reinforce its position in that market.
Strategic programs and transformation
O-I has outlined a multi-year transformation and profitability program called “Fit to Win”. In its earnings releases, the company states that Fit to Win is intended to improve its competitive position, enhance profitability, and support a long-term value creation roadmap. Reported benefits from Fit to Win include cost savings, improved operating efficiency, and support for margin expansion, even in periods of subdued demand.
The company has also referred to a “Best at Both” operations strategy, which it associates with driving higher premium output at lower operating cost and capital intensity. In connection with this strategy, O-I announced that it had made the decision to halt further development and operations of its MAGMA glass melting technology platform after concluding that it did not have a pathway to the operational or financial return requirements previously outlined. The company plans to reconfigure its Bowling Green facility into a best-cost, premium-focused operation, aligning with its broader competitiveness and economic profit focus.
Fit to Win encompasses actions such as restructuring, asset impairment charges, furnace suspensions, plant closures, and network optimization. For example, O-I has discussed the indefinite suspension of operations of one furnace and the closure of one plant in its Americas segment as part of efforts to reduce redundant capacity and optimize its network. In France, the company has initiated consultation processes regarding possible operational adjustments at several plants, potential cessation of production at one furnace, potential closure of a plant, and potential resizing of administrative functions.
Financial communication and performance metrics
O-I Glass regularly reports its financial results and guidance through press releases and SEC filings. The company highlights both GAAP and non-GAAP measures, including adjusted earnings, adjusted earnings per share, segment operating profit, segment operating profit margin, free cash flow, and adjusted effective tax rate. Management states that these non-GAAP measures are used to evaluate period-over-period operating performance by excluding items not considered representative of ongoing operations, such as restructuring and asset impairment charges.
The company’s earnings releases describe how segment operating profit and margins in the Americas and Europe are affected by factors such as sales volume (in tons), net price, operating costs, temporary production curtailments, and currency translation. O-I also provides guidance ranges for adjusted earnings per share and free cash flow, along with commentary on macroeconomic uncertainties, energy and raw material costs, supply chain conditions, labor challenges, and other factors that may influence results.
O-I communicates that free cash flow is defined as cash provided by operating activities less cash payments for property, plant, and equipment. Management notes that while free cash flow is a useful supplemental measure for evaluating cash generation related to its principal business activity, not all of that amount is available for discretionary expenditures due to mandatory debt service and other non-discretionary requirements.
Capital structure and credit facilities
Through an 8-K filing, O-I disclosed that a wholly owned subsidiary, Owens-Illinois Group, Inc., entered into an Amended and Restated Credit Agreement and Syndicated Facility Agreement with Wells Fargo Bank, National Association, and other lenders. This credit agreement refinanced a prior facility and provides for up to $2.7 billion of borrowings through term loans A, term loans B, and a revolving credit facility, with maturities extending into the next decade subject to certain conditions.
The credit agreement is secured by certain collateral of OI Group and some of its subsidiaries and includes covenants that, subject to exceptions, restrict activities such as incurring certain liens, making certain investments, undertaking specified contingent obligations, making restricted payments, engaging in asset sales beyond defined limits, entering into certain affiliate transactions, participating in sale and leaseback arrangements, altering the fundamental business, and amending certain subordinated debt obligations. It also includes a secured leverage ratio maintenance covenant that can affect the ability to undertake additional financing or acquisitions. Pricing under the agreement is linked to a total leverage ratio, and interest rates are based on base rate, Term SOFR, or Eurocurrency Rate plus applicable margins.
Corporate governance and board developments
O-I’s governance structure includes a Board of Directors elected by share owners. In its news releases, the company has reported changes to the Board, such as the retirement of a long-serving director and the election of new directors with global business and financial reporting experience. An 8-K filing also notes the resignation of a director pursuant to the company’s corporate governance guidelines following a significant change in that director’s external job responsibilities, with the filing stating that the resignation was not due to any disagreement with the company on operations, policies, or practices.
Investor communication and disclosure practices
O-I Glass frequently communicates with investors through earnings conference calls, webcasts, and presentations at industry and financial conferences. The company schedules quarterly and full-year earnings calls and makes presentation materials available on its investor relations site. It has stated that it uses its website and social media channels to publish information that may be deemed material to investors or supplemental to press releases and SEC filings.
In multiple releases, O-I reiterates that it posts important information on its investor relations website and encourages investors, media, and other interested parties to review that information alongside SEC filings, press releases, conference calls, and webcasts. The company also includes forward-looking statements disclaimers, noting that expectations about future performance involve risks related to cost management initiatives, macroeconomic conditions, trade policies, supply chain disruptions, energy and raw material costs, competitive pressures, consumer preferences, labor conditions, indebtedness, environmental and climate-related regulations, and other factors discussed in its SEC filings.
Position within manufacturing and packaging
Within the manufacturing sector, O-I Glass is aligned with glass container manufacturing and rigid packaging for food and beverage applications. The company’s emphasis on the recyclability and purity of glass positions it within broader discussions on packaging sustainability, although detailed industry trend analysis is outside the scope of the provided materials. O-I’s combination of a global plant network, relationships with major food and beverage brands, and ongoing operational and financial initiatives such as Fit to Win and Best at Both defines its current corporate profile as presented in its own communications.