O-I Glass, Inc. is an American company that specializes in

container glass Container glass is a type of glass for the production of glass containers, such as bottles, jars, drinkware, and bowls. Container glass stands in contrast to ''flat glass'' (used for windows, glass doors, transparent walls, windshields) and ''gl ...

products. It is one of the world's leading manufacturers of packaging products, holding the position of largest manufacturer of glass containers in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

, Asia-Pacific and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

(after acquiring BSN Glasspack in 2004). Approximately one of every two glass containers made worldwide is made by O-I, its affiliates, or its licensees.

Company

While legally known as Owens-Illinois, Inc., the company changed its trade name to O-I in 2005 to group its global operations under a single, cross-language and cross-culture brand name. The company's headquarters were previously located in

One SeaGate Fifth Third Center at One SeaGate is the 2nd tallest building in Toledo, behind the Cleveland Cliffs Furnace Tower (457 feet). Until 2006, the building served as the world headquarters for Owens-Illinois. In 2007, Fifth Third Bank moved their ...

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and according ...

, a local landmark. The headquarters were moved in late 2006 to the Levis Commons complex in

Perrysburg, Ohio Perrysburg is a city located in Wood County, Ohio, United States, along the south side of the Maumee River. The population was 25,041 at the 2020 census. Part of the Toledo metropolitan area, the city is southwest of Toledo. Perrysburg is the ...

. The company is the successor to the Owens Bottle Company founded in 1903 by

Michael Joseph Owens Michael Joseph Owens (January 1, 1859 – December 27, 1923) was an inventor of machines to automate the production of glass bottles. Biography He was born in Mason County, West Virginia on January 1, 1859. He left school at the age of 10 t ...

, who made the first automated bottle-making machine, and

Edward Drummond Libbey Edward Drummond Libbey (April 17, 1854 – November 13, 1925) is regarded as the father of the glass industry in Toledo, Ohio, where he opened the Libbey Glass Company (later Libbey, Inc.) in 1888. Biography Libbey was born April 17, 1854, in C ...

. In 1929, the Owens Bottle Company merged with Illinois Glass Company to become Owens-Illinois, Inc. Six years later, O-I merged with

Corning Incorporated Corning Incorporated is an American multinational technology company that specializes in specialty glass, ceramics, and related materials and technologies including advanced optics, primarily for industrial and scientific applications. The co ...

to form Owens Corning. In 1971 Owens-Illinois produced an early commercial

Plasma display A plasma display panel (PDP) is a type of flat panel display that uses small cells containing plasma: ionized gas that responds to electric fields. Plasma televisions were the first large (over 32 inches diagonal) flat panel displays to be releas ...

, the digivue. Until July 2007, the company was also a worldwide manufacturer of plastics packaging with operations in North America, South America, Asia-Pacific and Europe. Plastics packaging products manufactured by O-I included containers, closures, and prescription containers. In July 2007 O-I completed the sale of its entire plastics packaging business to

Rexam Rexam plc was a British-based multinational consumer packaging company headquartered in London, England. After spending much of its life as a paper producer known as Bowater, it diversified and became a leading manufacturer of beverage cans. It ...

PLC, a UK listed packaging manufacturer. O-I was a part of the

Dow Jones Industrial Average The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), Dow Jones, or simply the Dow (), is a stock market index of 30 prominent companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. The DJIA is one of the oldest and most commonly followed equity inde ...

from June 1, 1959, until March 12, 1987. The company was added to the

S&P 500 The Standard and Poor's 500, or simply the S&P 500, is a stock market index tracking the stock performance of 500 large companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. It is one of the most commonly followed equity indices. As of D ...

Index in January 2009. O-I was one of the original S&P 500 companies in 1957. It was removed in 1987 (after purchase by

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts KKR & Co. Inc., also known as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., is an American global investment company that manages multiple alternative asset classes, including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate, credit, and, through its strate ...

), added in 1991 and removed again in 2000. In October 2010, Owens-Illinois Venezuela C.A was

expropriated Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Austr ...

by President

Hugo Chávez Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (; 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician who was president of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013, except for a brief period in 2002. Chávez was also leader of the Fifth Republ ...

. In May 2015, O-I made an offer to purchase the food and beverage glass container business of Mexican company

Vitro Vitro is the largest glass producer in Mexico and one of the world's largest organizations in the glass industry. Founded in 1909 in Monterrey, Mexico, this corporation has 30 subsidiaries in Mexico, United States, Brazil, Colombia, Bolivia, Cos ...

for $2.15 billion. The acquisition closed in September 201

In 2020, a subsidiary of O-I Glass, Paddock Enterprises, entered bankruptcy following numerous asbestos lawsuits filed against the company. All of the company’s asbestos-related claims were isolated within Paddock and separated from O-I's glass-making operations.

Partnership with NEG

O-I partnered with NEG ( Nippon Electric Glass), to produce glass

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

screens at its

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...

, and Pittston, Pennsylvania, plants in the 1970s through the mid-1990s before allowing Techneglas to take over the operations.

Environmental issues

Although it has not made

asbestos Asbestos () is a naturally occurring fibrous silicate mineral. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous crystals, each fibre being composed of many microscopic "fibrils" that can be released into the atmosphere b ...

-containing materials since 1958, Owens-Illinois invented, tested, manufactured and distributed KAYLO asbestos containing thermal pipe insulation from 1948 through 1958. Owens-Illinois remains a named defendant in numerous asbestos litigation matters throughout the U.S. Some claims in these cases allege that Owens-Illinois was a participant in the seventh annual Saranac Seminar when the cancer-causing potential of asbestos was studied in the 1950s.Dukes et al. v. Pneumo Abex (2008 Illinois appellate court opinion, search for Owens and Saranac)
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References

External links

*
O-I trademarks seen on their vintage glass containers
{{Authority control, state=expanded Glassmaking companies of the United States Asbestos Manufacturing companies based in Ohio Companies based in Toledo, Ohio Wood County, Ohio American companies established in 1929 Manufacturing companies established in 1929 1929 establishments in Ohio Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Former components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average Packaging companies of the United States 1987 mergers and acquisitions Perrysburg, Ohio

Company

Partnership with NEG

Environmental issues

See also

References

External links