Description of the Business

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2011

Description of the Business [Abstract]

Description of the Business

Description of the Business

Libbey is the leading producer of glass tableware products in the Western Hemisphere, in addition to supplying key markets throughout the world. We produce glass tableware in five countries and sell to customers in over 100 countries. We have the largest manufacturing, distribution and service network among glass tableware manufacturers in the Western Hemisphere and are one of the largest glass tableware manufacturers in the world. We design and market an extensive line of high-quality glass tableware, ceramic dinnerware, metal flatware, hollowware and serveware to a broad group of customers in the foodservice, retail and business-to-business markets. We own and operate two glass tableware manufacturing plants in the United States as well as glass tableware manufacturing plants in the Netherlands (Libbey Holland), Portugal (Libbey Portugal), China (Libbey China) and Mexico (Libbey Mexico). Until April 28, 2011, we also owned and operated a plastics plant in Wisconsin. On April 28, 2011, we sold substantially all of the assets of our plastics product line, Traex, to the Vollrath Company (see note 17 for discussion on this transaction). Prior to April 2009, we owned and operated a ceramic dinnerware plant in New York (see note 7 on closure effective April, 2009). In addition, we import products from overseas in order to complement our line of manufactured items. The combination of manufacturing and procurement allows us to compete in the global tableware market by offering an extensive product line at competitive prices.