Last February, The Intelligencer interviewed Paolo Ghigo, the President of our American facilities.
Below, the interview also available on the newspaper’s website.

GLEN DALE – Many of the items Ohio Valley residents eat and use every day were finished off with closures made at the Tecnocap LLC facility in Glen Dale.

Tecnocap, an Italian company, has operated in Glen Dale for more than 15 years. It took over the former Penn-Wheeling Closure site in the city when it purchased the company.

Tecnocap’s facility in Warren, Ohio, is used to prepare tinplate that is then shipped to Glen Dale where it is turned into the closures.

One of the company’s newest closures being manufactured in Glen Dale are twist-off caps without sharp edges. The caps will have smooth edges that will allow a person opening a bottle of beer or other beverage to twist it off with their bare hand instead of having to use a towel or other barrier, said Paolo Ghigo, president of Tecnocap LLC. It is named the SuperC.

“It’s easier to open and retains its vacuum, extending the shelf life of goods,” he said.

Tecnocap is headquartered in Cava de’ Tirreni (Salerno), Italy, and was established there in 1993. In addition to its plants in the U.S. it also has facilities in India, Brazil, Ukraine, and Czech Republic. It employs about 1,000 people altogether.

The company is also in the business of making aluminum bottles and aerosol cans at its Italy facilities.

Ghigo noted the last 15 years of operation in Glen Dale have been a continuous work in progress.

“Penn Wheeling Closures was the result of consolidations and acquisitions for many years, and it was necessary to renew the production capabilities, to modernize the manufacturing lines as well as innovate adding new products,” he said.

“All of that doesn’t happen overnight. It was a matter to set strategies and goals and accomplish those through significant investments of capital and human resources. Looking back, we see that we may have been lucky sometimes and everything unfolded nicely. Thanks to that in the last 15 years many jobs have been created in the valley. We hope that the flywheel that took effort to get it to spin, continues to do so for many more years.”

“The company is evenly committed to pursue environmental, social and sustainable governance,” he added. “One of the largest solar panels in the state of West Virginia is installed over the roof of the Glen Dale facility, just to evidence one of the many initiatives to build a better world for future generations.”

“The company runs another plant in Warren OH, has established joint ventures in other parts of the United States on a range of business synergetic with the core of metal packaging.”

“Many projects to expand the capabilities are ongoing to the point to run out of space. Business permitting those will add more jobs.”

Ghigo noted there are differences between life and work in Italy and Glen Dale, but the working environment itself is not much different and explains:

“If I should highlight the main differences that I noticed, people locally are less attached to the company than I experienced overseas. The turnover is significantly higher,” he said. “In highly specialized businesses, experience and knowledge retentions are key for conducting a healthy business that lasts. I believe that local authorities and educational institutions at every level have been doing a good job in listening to the needs of employers”.

Ghigo said the future is always uncertain, as the COVID-19 pandemic has taught the world during the past couple years. However, the company has a “clear commitment to stay” and strong belief in American manufacturing.