Owners of Cerve Group the Bormioli family have been working with glass since the Middle Ages. The first official documentation of glass activity dates back to 1364 when the family was located in Altare in the province of Savona, on the north-Italian coast. In the nineteenth century the Bormiolis moved to Parma, where they continued glass production from a larger facility.

Founded by Pier Luigi Bormioli in Parma in 1953, initially as a division of the Bormioli Group for decoration, Cerve takes its name from the crasis of CERamica and VEtro [Italian for ‘ceramics’ and ‘glass’]. Pier and his father, Rocco, were inspired by the consumerism in 1950s America – the proliferation of colour televisions and refrigerators emblematic of the development gap between the United States and Italy – and acquired machines, annealing lehrs and know-how in glass decoration technologies from New Jersey. In 1964 the company started its collaboration with Ferrero for the decoration of Nutella jars and glasses.

“Cerve began to successfully enter the [glass] market with its own brands and decorations in the 1980s,” recounts Giovanni Bormioli (son of Pier and grandson of Rocco), who has been running the company since 1989. “It divided into two divisions: one for decorations for third parties, the other for the decoration and commercialisation of glass items for the kitchen and home. In those years a policy of strong expansion began with new plants, technologically advanced production lines, investments in research and development.” By 2000 Cerve was “a world leader in mechanics applied to glass decoration and still continues its pioneering role in the sector,” he adds.

Global player with enormous resources

Today, the company specialises in the glass decoration sector and its main costumers are glass factories, fashion houses, large chains of tableware and spirits producers. “We are world leaders. We can boast of the largest decoration plant in the world [50,000m2] with more than 30 lines of production,” says Mr Bormioli.

Cerve’s supersized facility for glass decoration is headquartered in Vedole, Parma (the first plant opened in 2006; the second in 2009). There are two further factories in Parma: San Polo, specialising in tableware decoration, and Medesano: where the matting [applying an opaque satin finish] of small bottles (perfumery/cosmetics) takes place. There is another matting facility for larger bottles (wine, spirits…) in Poggibonsi, Tuscany, and another in Altare – the Tuscan home of Bormioli family. There is “no limit” to the size of bottles that Cerve’s equipment can decorate.

The company currently employs 600 people. There is a “very low turnover and a widespread sense of belonging” among staff, reports Mr Bormioli, which he attributes to “the importance we attach to human resources, in workspaces and individual enhancement,” – for instance, all Cerve’s factories have been purposely designed for enhanced ergonomics, low noise, and employee comfort.

Ability to adapt and innovate

Supplying international key markets of tableware and fashion house perfumery & cosmetics, Cerve has observed and responded to an increasing demand for custom glass that ticks the boxes for sustainability (see overleaf) and singularity. The company offers an abundance of decorating options. For its screen printing operations, Cerve works with affiliate company Tecno5, manufacturer of equipment for multi-colour and high-precision printing on glass items. “Tecno5 is the company’s reference [for] screen printing machines and we commission them to produce many machines,” says Mr Bormioli. Other decorative techniques available to clients include pad printing, hot stamping, decal application, laser engraving, matting, sandblasting, coating, mirroring and ceramic glazes and its OKT decoration (organic colouring for glass tableware with a lower environmental impact due to using less energy for the screen printing process).

“We are pioneers in digital decoration with our patented OKJ technology,” adds Mr Bormioli, of the company’s exclusive technology which allows decoration to extend to the bottom of glasses, goblets and other flat shapes, offering an unlimited number of colours and the option to create four-colour images – both opaque and transparent – that are also dishwasher-safe.

“However, there is still a long way to go for a clear transition between classic screen printing and digital printing,” believes Mr Bormioli. “The goal of Cerve is to improve more and more in digital printing and use it to the fullest. For example, digital printing is very useful for sampling.”

A minimum production run for the busy company is 4,000 bottles/glasses. There is no maximum limit; “We have the equipment to handle customers with tens of millions of pieces per year,” confirms Mr Bormioli. And also the capacity: Cerve’s size means that it can provide clients with a lot of space to store products, and customers benefit from expertise and know-how that is shared across all the plants.

Working closely with brand owners to develop innovative glass decoration solutions is very important to Cerve. “We want to find the best design that reflects the style of the brand and the [intention] of the owner,” explains Mr Bormioli. “One example could be Vodka Cavalli [created by the fashion brand Roberto Cavalli]; we worked with Tommaso Cavalli to refine the design of the bottle.”

Other prestige clients include Chanel – in 2000 Cerve began decorating bottles for the launch of the Coco Mademoiselle perfume, continuing to work with the brand on other fragrances – and Dolce and Gabbana.

Diversifying into glassmaking

Having dominated the market for glass decoration, Cerve considered a return to the original family business and, almost ten years ago, started looking for a new glass factory that would enable the company to combine its decoration know-how with manufacturing. This led to Cerve Group’s acquisition of Austrian glass manufacturer Technoglas in 2018. “We decided [on] Technoglas because we believed in the production of [its] high quality pressed glass for many markets,” explains Mr Bormioli.

Founded in southern Austria in 1859, the Voitsberg glass factory has undergone multiple changes of ownership and product specialism. “[When] we took over the glass factory [it] only produced car headlights. The challenge was to start producing for other markets as well, diversifying the company,” says Mr Bormioli. Today, under the stewardship of Cerve and Technoglas, it manufactures high quality pressed glass for tableware, perfume & cosmetics, and automotive and technical glass. The plant has a 40tpd furnace coupled to four production lines, all with automatic pressing systems. Since the acquisition, Cerve Group has made investments to increase the quality and production yield and will continue to augment the facility’s capabilities. “We are building a new, [better-] performing line,” says Mr Bormioli. He is coy on the subject of forthcoming product launches – “We reserve some surprises for the future,” he teases.

Vidivi Vetri delle Venezie

On 18 January, 2021 Cerve acquired another glassworks in Voitsberg, finalising its purchase of the Vetri delle Venezia (Vidivi) branch of the business from Vetrerie Riunite SpA. An Italian brand for home and tableware items in glass, Vidivi Vetri delle Venezie is “well known for the brilliance, design, transparency and resistance of the items,” according to Mr Bormioli. “Vidivi is a very refined brand with a lot of charm. We plan to produce new glass shapes with a very attractive design that reflects the Austrian know-how and the classic Italian style.”

Vidivi is a go-to for its glasses, vases, cups, bowls, carafes, plates and cake stands, and Cerve plans to add to this range with a premium offering: “We are going to present two new lines of glasses, vases and cups – one this year and another in 2023 – designed by a famous Italian designer allocated in Milan.”

Vidivi Vetri delle Venezie’s main market is international export: USA, the Middle East, Europe; and customers are large household chains. Cerve intends to expand into new markets, aided by investment in new lines and strengthening Vidivi’s communication and brand awareness.

Commitment to sustainability

Cerve is acutely aware that industry leadership comes with responsibilities, and the power to ‘play a pioneering role in technological innovation and to devote exemplary attention to the environment and society […] from raw materials to the smallest organisational and managerial choices’, according to its website, which has a dedicated ‘green’ tab detailing its efforts to respect and preserve the environment.

Technoglas posits itself as a green company: “100% of the waste from the production process is ground and used to lower the melting temperature and save energy,” explains Mr Bormioli. “The furnace that melts our glass is 100% electric and is powered by hydroelectric energy: the process is therefore completely sustainable."

Vidivi proudly displays its sustainability credentials too, highlighting the fact that all products are strictly lead-free and fully recyclable.

As an environmentally-conscious glass decorator, Cerve has been promoting organic glazes for 30 years and only uses solvent-free water-based paints. “Our vocation for development and research has led us to patent organic colours and highly sustainable techniques, such as OKT and OKJ, without sacrificing high levels of resistance to washing and product brilliance,” elaborates Mr Bormioli. “We invest in the development of glazes that require lower firing temperatures to reduce our energy impact [and] we respect the environment by using low-consumption brushless electric motors and electric lehrs in our factories.”

In addition, Cerve avoids polluting with closed-cycle satin finishing systems, and further reduces the environmental impact of its operations by lighting its factories with LEDs, powered by photovoltaic panels, cooled with the help of large windows.

“Profit is important, but there are other values too,” underlines Mr Bormioli. “The impact that work has on people’s lives and on the community is essential […] We are proud to produce an eternal, infinitely recyclable sustainable material."

“With our products and glass in general we help free the planet and the sea from the invasion of single-use plastics,” he adds.

It would seem that the company’s social and environmental conscience is as crystal clear as its products.

 
Image: Aerial view of Cerve’s Vedole plant (inset: Giovanni Bormioli).