Stakeholders

Given that Vetropack is an exchange-listed stock corporation (‘Aktiengesellschaft’), our shareholders – gathered together at the Annual General Assembly – are our company’s highest governing body. They define the framework for the company’s activities and its strategy on the basis of the Articles of Association and decisions regarding personnel. By approving the annual report and the consolidated financial statements, they vote each year on whether they are satisfied with the implementation of the strategy, the business activities and the financial result. We keep shareholders and other interested stakeholder groups informed by issuing annual and semi-annual reports as well as media releases. If shareholders collectively hold at least 0,5 percent of the share capital or votes, they may require an item for discussion to be added to the agenda. Shareholders who represent at least over 5 percent of the share capital or votes may require an Extraordinary General Assembly to be convened at any time, provided that the motions to be discussed are submitted to the Board of Directors in writing.

The majority shareholder in Vetropack Holding Ltd, the Cornaz AG-Holding, has a special position. It appoints Richard Fritschi as the Chairmain of the Board of Directors and Claude R. Cornanz as the Vice-Chairman. 

Both the CEO and the CFO maintain relationships with investors and are responsible for responding to their enquiries. These exchanges take place at meetings or during plant visits.

Our suppliers, customers and the consumers are stakeholder groups of central importance in our operational business. The Chief Supply Chain Officer (CSCO), for example, is responsible for interaction with the suppliers. The Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) is responsible for customer care and retention, requirements planning, and sales. Development of innovative customised products is driven ahead by the Engineering and Production department. We interact with our customers on a daily basis; we also conduct regular surveys to obtain knowledge about their needs and requirements, and to continue our strategic development. The most recent survey of this sort was carried out in 2023.

Our glassworks create jobs, generate added value, and can also promote the development and expansion of local infrastructure. The communities where our plants are located also have to tolerate certain negative impacts such as traffic or also noise (in the immediate vicinity). For this reason, Vetropack endeavours to respect the relevant emission limits by implementing technological optimisations.

Vetropack cooperates with schools in certain countries to raise children’s awareness about collecting glass and environment-friendly behaviour. In this context, we collaborate with local schools to organise projects and competitions (such as the Vetro Challenge staged by Vetropack Straža). Vetropack also participates in Switzerland’s nationwide Day of the Future, when we offer insights into everyday working life to school students who are interested.

We engage in public relations work – for example, by supporting events and through advertising – to draw the attention of the general public (the end consumers of our products) to the advantages of glass as a packaging for food and beverages, and to the environmental relevance of recycling. By implementing strict quality controls and standardised production processes, we guarantee that the consumers can enjoy food and beverages without risks or hazards; our glass packaging products also ensure that foods and beverages can be preserved.

Media: to interact with our stakeholder groups (the general public, customers, potential new customers, business partners and others), we make use of various communication channels: our company website, our internal portal, employee magazines and the employee app (Beekeeper), brochures, trade magazines, our customer magazine Vetrotime, and LinkedIn as our preferred social media channel. We focus on compact, fact-based communication in all these media. In order to reach our stakeholder groups, we offer insights into specific aspects of our day-to-day work. For this purpose, we opt for a mix of Group communication and posts from our sites. We have also published a large number of media releases since 2022.

The Sustainability section of this report (Social impact) includes a detailed description of how we interact with our employees and how we integrate them.

Memberships and associations

We participate in associations and industry federations for the purpose of transferring knowledge about innovative processes, the latest technology and safe, environment-friendly production processes. A list of all our memberships is available on our website. The most important of these for us is FEVE (the European Container Glass Federation). As part of our membership activities, we collaborate with other glass manufacturers to engage in initiatives such as ‘Close the Glass Loop’, and we help to raise public awareness about the advantages of glass as a packaging material.