O-I Names New Senior Vice President And Chief Commercial Officer

PERRYSBURG, Ohio, Dec. 13, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Owens-Illinois, Inc., (NYSE: OI), the world's largest glass packaging maker, has named Tony Gardner the company's new senior vice president and chief commercial officer. Gardner succeeds Erasmo Schutzer, the company's former senior vice president and chief marketing officer, who left the company in August.

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Gardner  leads O-I's global sales, marketing, pricing and product innovation initiatives. His priorities include developing O-I's customer-centric go-to-market strategies, driving the company's global pricing strategy, aligning its product portfolio with existing and planned customer needs and creating commercial plans to drive consumer and customer demand for glass.

"Glass stood by for far too long and watched other packaging materials take away share," said Chairman and CEO Al Stroucken. "Glass is the most sustainable packaging material available and O-I is uniquely positioned to promote that story, given our unparalleled global footprint and expertise," he added. "Tony brings a great deal of experience and understanding of our customer base. We expect he will significantly strengthen our commercial abilities and help us lead the rebirth of glass packaging."

Gardner joins O-I at a time of tremendous change. In 2011, the company launched its first-ever global campaign to champion glass. The Glass Is Life campaign showcases the unique and unmatched qualities of glass packaging to build successful food and beverage brands through the testimonials of CEOs, environmentalists and parents, among others. In addition, O-I launched a new and more customer-centric go-to-market strategy designed to empower the company's sales, marketing and product innovation teams to develop commercial plans with their customers that better reflect consumer trends. The company also introduced innovative new product concepts, including Lean+Green® lightweight wine bottles and Vortex® internally embossed beer bottles. And, in recent years, O-I has begun building a platform to become more aligned with the market and the customer, including more aggressive pricing and footprint strategies to maximize the value of glass packaging.

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