With the overall increase in glass use in beverage bottling over the past several years due to its premium image, Owens-Illinois Inc. built a new glass manufacturing plant in Windsor, Colo.

Beginning this month, the new facility will produce more than 1 billion beer bottles annually, placing it among the highest output glass container plants in the world. This facility will increase O-I’s production capacity by 2 percent in the United States and by 5 percent worldwide.

The plant is the glass packaging industry’s first new manufacturing plant in more than 20 years, and O-I’s first new glass container manufacturing plant in the United States since 1980. “This facility embodies all the technological advancements O-I has achieved in the past 25 years,” says Matt Longthorne, president of North America, glass.

O-I’s pursuit of the highest level of technology has led it to be a supplier for Anheuser-Busch, and this 450,000-square-foot plant will help serve A-B’s growing needs. The facility will mainly conduct process control and lightweight bottling.

During a 10-year period the plant expects to bring $461 million to the state of Colorado, and will create 173 new U.S.-based manufacturing jobs. BI