Anchor Hocking plant opens in Lancaster; plant boasts state-of-the-art equipment and a ''socio-tech'' work environment.

LANCASTER, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 19, 1995--Anchor Hocking Packaging Co. will officially dedicate its Mill Park plant in Lancaster, Ohio, on October 19, as the first new plant in the metal closure industry in more than 25 years. The facility will manufacture metal vacuum closures for companies such as Gerber, Snapple, Coca-Cola, Everfresh and Royal Mistic.

``Our new world-class facility will help Anchor Hocking focus on both the changing needs of our customers and the necessity for continuous improvement of manufacturing predictability,'' says Larry Montanus, president of Anchor Hocking. ``It will ensure that we remain competitive and increase our sales of top-quality closures for baby food and new age beverages.''

The plant opening will be a culmination of bringing together the best in proven technology from around the world with a ``socio-tech,'' team environment. The socio-tech work environment was designed to improve employee satisfaction as well as productivity and product quality.

The socio-tech process begins at the recruitment stage to help ensure that the right people are hired and properly trained. Employees are empowered to make decisions and give feedback, are constantly developing their skills, and gain a working knowledge of the entire business. Employees work in teams to maximize efficiency and productivity. The teams plan and set their own goals, help monitor the quality of their work, and have ownership of the products and processes.

These and the many other aspects which go into building a socio-tech work environment help the company provide more benefits for the customer. For example, there will be less variation in closures which will improve application efficiencies. Anchor Hocking will be able to respond even more quickly to customer requests. The process also enables the company to build close collaborative relationships with suppliers and customers.

The Mill Park plant, which will operate closure forming and decorating lines, is a facility that uses state-of-the-art equipment and will be the first in this class of technologically-advanced facilities in the closure industry. The new plant's world class technology will allow for improved lead times, reducing inventories of product. The technology also will improve the overall quality and consistency of the closures ultimately resulting in greater efficiencies.

Anchor Hocking will initially hire approximately 100 employees for the new facility, with 86 on board by the grand opening. Since the building was designed with the capacity to double in size, more employees could be hired for this site in the future.

Lancaster was an ideal site for the new facility for several reasons. For one, Lancaster is a central location to key customers, Anchor Hocking Technical Center already exists in the city for this reason.

Additionally, Anchor Hocking received the cooperation of the State of Ohio, Fairfield County and the Lancaster community. The eleven-acre site also met the requirements for development of the new plant.

``We have great expectations for the Mill Park plant and believe it will be extremely successful,'' says Yves Stordeur, Anchor Hocking's vice president of operations. ``We plan to implement the principles of world-class manufacturing throughout our entire organization.''

Anchor Hocking Packaging Co. is one of the nation's largest manufacturers of metal, plastic and composite closures for packaging which are used for beverage, food and infant products. The company is a division of CarnaudMetalbox, a $5 billion international packaging company.

CONTACT: Hensley Segal Rentschler, Cincinnati

George Rafeedie or Steve Kissing, 513/671-3811