Just one month after Stoelzle Masnières fired up its new furnace, the Austrian glassmaker is poised to launch the production of bottles and carafes for the premium spirits market at its historic French glassworks.
Following the opening of its sales office in Cognac in January of last year, Stoelzle has announced that it is diversifying its French business beyond fragrance and cosmetics to cater also to the premium spirits market. Joining its dedicated spirits production sites in Czestochowa, Poland and Knottingley, UK, the Masnières glassworks in Northern France will launch the production of spirits bottles and carafes as of next March — a first for its French site.
Early January, Stoelzle fired up its new furnace, representing an investment of €20m, along with a fifth production line for spirits using extra flint glass and up to 10% PCR content.
“With Masnières on board for spirits, we’ll be able to offer our French clients local production and therefore shortened supply chains, which are increasingly in demand,” Hervé de Rivoire, Stoelzle’s Spirits Key Account Manager in France, explains to Luxe Packaging Insight. “The transfer of expertise from perfumery to spirits will certainly play in our favor; after all, a carafe of Cognac XO is not so far from an oversized bottle of perfume!”
As with its perfumery production, the glassmaker will be offering spirits bottles and carafes the same panel of in-house decoration techniques, including, in the coming months, its Quali Glass Coat and New Radiating Glass, the latter which offers phosphorescent detailing to the glass.
Stoelzle set up a sales office in Cognac in January 2020 to develop its spirits business, and is targeting the premium cognac, gin, whisky and vodka segments.
