Workers at Bormioli Rocco glassworks are on strike w/c 22 May, after the recent announcement by the historical Italian glassworks saying that it intends to reorganize the group into four different companies. The unions of the 800 workers organized the strike, with representatives based in front of the company premises at Fidenza. Workers at Castelguelfo and delegations from Trezzano sul Naviglio, Milan, Bergantino, Rovigo and Altare, Savona, will also be taking part. On Saturday 17 May, the workers met with Luca Lotti, undersecretary of the government and right hand man of the Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi. He had scheduled a visit to Fidenza to take part in the electoral campaign of Andrea Massari, the PD candidate for mayor at Fidenza, but decided to hold a public assembly to discuss the problems at Bormioli. The Group’s chairman Paolo Antonietti said in April 2014: “This reorganization completes a process started three years ago aimed at enhancing our group operative efficiency and results”. Vision Capital fund said it might be ready to start thinking of divesting Bormioli in 2015. The private equity operator bought a 94.1& stake in Bormioli’s shareholders capital from Banco Popolare in 2011, funding the LBO issuing a 250 million euros high yield bond. The announcement follows the sale of Bormioli’s perfumery and cosmetics activities December 2013. Bormioli actually sold its French subsidiary Verrieres de Masniéres sas (VDM) and its sole subsidiary Bormioli Rocco Valorisation SAS, which operated Bormioli’s perfumery and cosmetics glass packaging business. Moreover January 2014 Bormioli agreed to sell to the same buyer certain assets of Bormioli Rocco Glass Co. Inc. related to perfumery and cosmetics business in the US market. Acquirer was Stölzle Glass Group, a leading European manufacturer of high-end glass packaging products in perfumery, cosmetics, spirits and pharma sectors.
