Company

Memories

The history of Vetreria Etrusca began in Empoli (FI) in 1920 when it was a small company producing glass almost exclusively for the associated companies in the Empoli area that covered flasks, demijohns and all the containers used in the production of wine and olive oil.

The choice of the name ‘Etrusca’ was not by chance, linked as it is to the enthusiastic revaluation of the Etruscan glassmaking art that took place in the twenties.

In 1928, when Vetreria Etrusca changed location and became a joint stock company called Società Anonima Etrusca, it started producing artistic glass in the traditional Empoli green colour.

Innovation

In 1951, a small artisan company called Cooperativa Operai Vetrai was founded in Montelupo Fiorentino for producing straw covered flasks for the wineries in the surrounding Chianti territory, according to an ancient tradition dating back to the Tuscan Renaissance. The company was managed by Giovanni Bartolozzi. Intuition, ingeniousness, research and innovative development all formed part of the spirit of a company that over the years has gone on to become a leading business.

In 1958 the Cooperativa Operai Vetrai C.O.V. took over the business of Società Anonima Vetreria Etrusca and its registered name. It was thus able to increase its production thanks to the first large furnace, the semi-automatic machinery, and the expertise of the operators who had stayed on to work in the glass factory.

Between 1958 and 1960, Giovanni Bartolozzi created and patented original techniques for covering the flasks, radically revolutionising the production processes. Already by the end of the decade, the melting furnace had been refurbished to meet the growing production demands. This was the start of a successful and progressive growth cycle.

Creativity

Creativity was what the company evolved around. Giovanni Bartolozzi designed shapes, sizes, bottle volumes, containers, jars personally with an original, exclusive touch. The ongoing search for new proposals led to the Fantasie. A product series inspired by the idea that drink or food containers, after use for their specific purpose, can become something else: table lamps, candlesticks, oil dispensers and lots more ornamental and useful items. With this creative touch the small enterprise, originally just satisfying local demand, acquired more space standing out for originality and product innovation. Thus Vetreria Etrusca opened to international markets, exporting its creations overseas and really expanded.

Growth

Growth starting in the 70s, was to take Vetreria Etrusca well over its country's borders. From 1976 to 1986, Vetreria Etrusca exports increased tenfold. The company expanded, beyond European markets, to the United States, Japan and Australia. These were the years of new projects, like Vetrocasa: items for home use; useful, functional, with a high market demand. Those years led to Tuscia, the first oil bottle with a handle, to be reused after the product had finished. A true invention. A small really modern item which was to become, twenty years later in 1990, the symbol of the global oil year. The company's strategic choice was to make innovation an uninterrupted ongoing factor. A way to combine growth and creativity; a forward-looking project.

Development

The 80s were when the company offered original shapes for oil bottles and jars for preserves and pickles. The productive growth's key element was to add value to content through the container. Vetreria Etrusca targeted the bond between the production of high quality glass and the excellence of Italian food products. Collaborations started with important brands in the sector. In 1985, Vetreria Etrusca received the Caterina de’ Medici award for having contributed to the popularization of quality Italian food products on international markets.

Vetreria Etrusca expanded its productive structure acquiring other plants in the area and specialised in product personalisation. This research into "special products" was to become a winning intuition, responding to growing demand.

Goals

The decade going from the 90s to the goals of the year 2000 was a period of great change and redefining the production structure. After the growth of food sector products, the search for new market segments led to a spirit and liquor product line. The collections in extra-white flint came to life. To enhance line purity and the luminosity of transparency, content clearness. 1992 was the year of Le Carré, the first and only airtight, square food container, another sector invention-revolution. In 1994, Vetreria Etrusca took a great leap forward and purchased the Altare plant, in the Savona area, increasing its production capacity four-fold, from 30 to 120 tons a day. But, above all, projecting the potential of a company with a leading role in the sector at European and international levels towards the future.

The change

At the start of 2000, Vetreria Etrusca was leader in the oil and vinegar segment, had an important position in the spirits and liquors segment and was a reference company in the special jars one. It felt a need to complete its offer by turning to the wine segment, with its need for increasingly sophisticated, elegant products. So it designed a new product line in a particularly intense, elegant colour, verdetrusco, allowing it to add value to and protect contents.

In 2003, it inaugurated the company's new head office in Montelupo Fiorentino. A truly special architectural project. An expense of glass bottles covering the outer facades, evidence of how precious glass is, as the constructive element of a story stretching upwards.

Another fundamental step in 2009: radical renovation of the Altare plant. Furnace demolition and reconstruction took production capacity up to 200 tons a day. The new plant has all the most cutting-edge technology. Integrating the plant into the territory and eco-compatibility become strategic choices.

The new production structure increased the company's offer. This led to the lines for the champagne and sparkling wine world and for up-market beer. Proposals with those creativity and versatility pluses that are characteristic of the Vetreria Etrusca market position.

This is an ongoing story making Vetreria Etrusca a main protagonist amongst manufacturers rigorously Made in Italy. Going well beyond the idea of manufacturing company. More of a research and innovation laboratory with special care for eco-sustainability and continually widening its production offer that is more stimulating for the market: the forward-looking factory of transparent ideas.

The future

In 2016 Vetreria Etrusca installed a second furnace dedicated to clear glass (Extrabianco and Mezzobianco) in its factory at Altare, while still continuing to produce Verdetrusco glass in the first furnace. The new “Centauro” furnace is designed to reduce environmental impact to a minimum. Production has therefore passed from 4 to 7 IS lines. A wager based on the company’s entrepreneurial intentions, representing an important milestone in the growth curve of Vetreria Etrusca.

Up to 16 different types of items are produced every day in the factory at Altare for a sample range of over 1,000 different models including bottles for still wines, sparkling wines, spirits, olive oil, vinegar, beer and jars for foodstuffs, as well as personalised containers.

History continues to make Vetreria Etrusca a star among the strictly ‘Made in Italy’ manufacturing companies, reaching far beyond the idea of a simple production company, to become instead a laboratory of research and innovation, with special focus on eco-sustainability and the ongoing expansion of the most stimulating production offers for the market: in other words, a factory of transparent ideas with its eyes on the future.