Owens-Illinois Inc, a Maker of Beer Bottles

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James R Hagerty, Looking for a Profit Genie in a Bottle. Wall Street Journal, Apr 11, 2015.
www.wsj.com/articles/is-time-run ... illinois-1428689364

Quote:

"PERRYSBURG, Ohio—Five years ago, Owens-Illinois Inc seemed to have found a winning formula. The world’s largest maker of bottles for beer, wine and liquor had cut costs, shed noncore businesses and lodged itself into China’s fast-growing market. Then the bottle let Owens-Illinois down. Mass-market brewers over the past few years have put more of their beer in cans. * * global demand for glass beverage bottles, which account for about 85% of Owens-Illinois’ annual revenue, is barely growing.

"Owens-Illinois, founded in 1903 by Michael Owens, who invented an automated bottle-making machine, faces one big rival in Europe and the US, Ardagh Group of Ireland, which * * * had a loss of €391 million ($423.5 million) on sales of €4.73 billion in 2014

"Owens-Illinois and Ardagh are up against thousands of smaller local and regional rivals, which tend to hold prices down. * * * The factories all use similar technology to heat sand, soda ash and limestone to around 2,850 degrees Fahrenheit and drop yellow streaks of molten glass into molds.

"In China, there are more than 1,000 bottle makers, Mr [CEO Albert] Stroucken said, and many sell at prices that didn’t make economic sense to Owens-Illinois [whose China facilities thus could not compete and had to close]. 'We found it was very difficult to compete profitably…with so many small players,' he said

Note:
(a) Owens-Illinois
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owens-Illinois
(Approximately one of every two glass containers made worldwide is made by O-I, its affiliates, or its licensees; Founded [by Michael Owens] Toledo, Ohio, Headquarters  Perrysburg [qv; a suburb of Toledo; named after Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, naval commander during the War of 1812], Ohio)
(i) Company Facts. In "About O-I." O-I, undated
www.o-i.com/About-O-I/Company-Facts/
(Founded in 1903 as Owens Bottle Company [the year Michael Owens invented 'an automated bottle-making machine']; Merged with Illinois Glass Company in 1929 to become Owens-Illinois, Inc)
(ii) How Glass Is Made. O-I, undated
www.o-i.com/Why-Glass/How-Glass-Is-Made/
(a video clip of 3:52)

(b) Illinois Glass Co
(i) Owens Joins with Illinois.
www.utoledo.edu/library/canaday/ ... t/OwensIllinois.htm
("A cabinet maker by trade, [Edward] Levis became involved in the glass industry in 1873 when he, along with partner William Eliot [sic; should be 'Elliot'] Smith, purchased the Illinois Glass Company a business that had failed three times before")

In
Ward M Canaday Center, University of Toledo
www.utoledo.edu/library/canaday/exhibit.html
(Digital Exhibits: "Time in a Bottle: A History of Owens-Illinois, Inc, December 2007")
(ii) George B Griffenhagen and Mary Bogard, History of Drug Containers and Their Labels. Madison, Wisconsin: American Institute of the History of Pharmacy, 1999 (Publication No 17), at page 100
books.google.com/books?id=N4N9bsxc2LYC&pg=PA103&lpg=PA103&dq=%27"Illinois+Glass+Company"+founding&source=bl&ots=9hSOl-djXs&sig=qXQu66VuvAHr7pJaKLLVljbRq3M&hl=en&sa=X&ei=bqcpVYrLN4zmsASW24DICA&ved=0CB0Q6AEwADgK#v=onepage&q='%22Illinois%20Glass%20Company%22%20founding&f=false
("Illinois Glass Company: Incorporated in 1873 by William Elliot Smith in Alton, Illinois")

* Alton, Illinois
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alton,_Illinois

(c) Where is Corning in this picture?

Corning Inc
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corning_Inc

Quote:

"In 1998 Corning divested itself of its consumer lines of CorningWare and Corelle tableware and Pyrex cookware selling them to World Kitchen, but still holds an interest of about 8%

"Corning Glass Works was founded in 1851 by Amory Houghton, in Somerville [a Boston suburb], Massachusetts, originally as the Bay State Glass Co. It later moved to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, and operated as the Brooklyn Flint Glass Works. The company moved again to its ultimate home and namesake, the city of Corning, New York, in 1868 under leadership of the founder's son, Amory Houghton, Jr.