Restructuring events
European Restructuring Monitor (ERM)
The restructuring events database contains factsheets with data on large-scale restructuring events reported in the principal national media and company websites in each EU Member State. This database was created in 2002.
O-I Glass, the world’s largest container glass manufacturer, has cut about 1,500 jobs worldwide in 2024. The cuts were implemented under the ‘Fit to Win’ programme, leading to extensive job cuts and plant closures across South America, the United States and Europe. Among others, the company closed its facilities in Spain and France.
These measures are part of a European plan to optimise production and save around €650 million by 2027. The company cites declining demand for glass packaging, linked to lower alcohol consumption and competition pressures, as the main driver of restructuring. Trade unions have criticised the decisions as financially motivated and harmful to local employment.
O-I Glass operates 69 facilities in 19 countries and employs about 21,000 people worldwide.
UPDATED 31/10/2025:
Following the restructuring programme in 2024, O-I Glass, has announced further closures in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Scotland, Spain, and Italy in 2025.
In France O-I Glass 2025-FR , 340 jobs will be cut as part of a social plan agreed after negotiations with unions, including 164 layoffs due to the closure of the Vergèze plant supplying Perrier, while additional jobs will be lost at the Gironcourt, Puy-Guillaume, Reims and Vayres sites. In Germany O-I Glass 2025-DE , about 100 employees at the Bernsdorf plant in Saxony will lose their jobs. In the Netherlands O-I Glass 2025-NL , the company will close its factory in Maastricht by 1 March 2026, resulting in the loss of 215 jobs.
Eurofound (2024), O-I Glass , Internal restructuring in World, factsheet number 203776, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/203776.
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