historically comprised the Asia Pacific segment, and that have been retained by the Company, have been reclassified to Other sales and Retained corporate costs and other, respectively.
Products and Services
The Company produces glass containers for alcoholic beverages, including beer, flavored malt beverages, spirits and wine. The Company also produces glass packaging for a variety of food items, soft drinks, teas, juices and pharmaceuticals. The Company manufactures glass containers in a wide range of sizes, shapes and colors and is active in new product development and glass container innovation.
Customers
In most of the countries where the Company competes, it has the leading position in the glass container segment of the rigid packaging market based on sales revenue. The Company’s largest customers consist mainly of the leading global food and beverage manufacturers, including (in alphabetical order) Anheuser-Busch InBev, Brown-Forman, Carlsberg, Coca-Cola, Constellation, Diageo, Heineken, Molson Coors, Nestle, and PepsiCo.
The Company sells most of its glass container products directly to customers under annual or multi-year supply agreements. Multi-year contracts typically provide for price adjustments based on cost changes. The Company also sells some of its products through distributors. Many customers provide the Company with regular estimates of their product needs, which enables the Company to schedule glass container production to maintain reasonable levels of inventory. Glass container manufacturing facilities are generally located in close proximity to customers.
Sales and Markets
The Company’s principal markets for glass container products are in the Americas and Europe with select operations remaining in the Asia Pacific region after the sale of its ANZ businesses.
Americas. The Company has 35 glass container manufacturing plants in the Americas region located in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, the U.S. and interests in three joint ventures that manufacture glass containers. Also, the Company has a distribution facility in the U.S. used to import glass containers from its business in Mexico. The Company has the leading share of the glass container segment of the U.S. rigid packaging market, based on sales revenue by domestic producers. In South America and Mexico, the Company maintains a diversified portfolio serving several markets, including alcoholic beverages (beer, wine and spirits), non-alcoholic beverages and food, as well as a large infrastructure for returnable/refillable glass containers.
The principal glass container competitors in the U.S. are the Ardagh Group and Anchor Glass Container. Imports from China, Mexico, Taiwan and other countries also compete in U.S. glass container segments. Additionally, there are several major consumer packaged goods companies that self-manufacture glass containers. The Company competes directly with Verallia in Brazil and Argentina, and does not believe that it competes with any other large, multinational glass container manufacturers in the rest of the region.
Europe. The Company is one of the leaders in the glass container segment of the rigid packaging market in the European countries in which it operates, with 34 glass container manufacturing plants located in the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom. These plants primarily produce glass containers for the alcoholic beverages (beer, wine and spirits), non-alcoholic beverages and food markets in these countries. The Company also has interests in two joint ventures that manufacture glass containers in Italy. Throughout Europe, the Company competes directly with a variety of glass container manufacturers including Verallia, Ardagh Group, Vetropack, Vidrala and BA Vidro.
Asia Pacific. After 2020, the Company will no longer report results for the Asia Pacific reportable segment due to the sale of most of this segment. On July 31, 2020, the Company completed the sale of its ANZ businesses, which comprised the majority of its businesses in the Asia Pacific region (approximately 85% of net sales in that region for the full year 2019), to Visy. After the sale of the ANZ businesses, the remaining