A fragrance brand had 96,000 units of sprayed and foil-decorated glass vessels – all produced overseas – and the foil was failing. It was lifting and peeling during handling, making the entire batch unusable. With a product launch imminent, the brand needed a solution fast.
They approached Fira with a straightforward question: can you fix this?
The obvious answer – applying a protective top coat over the existing decoration – was anything but simple. The foil on the vessels meant that standard curing temperatures were off the table. At Fira’s normal firing temperature of around 180°C, the foil would degrade and discolour. But a simple air-dried coating wasn’t durable enough either – the client’s own testing, which included prolonged exposure to their strongest fragrance formulation, showed the air-dry finish softening under stress.
Fira’s team worked with their coating suppliers and drew on in-house formulation experience to develop a hybrid solution: a custom-blended coating that could be cured at an intermediate temperature – high enough for genuine durability, but low enough to preserve the foil decoration underneath. It required careful material selection and iterative testing, but the result was a finish that passed every performance test the client set.
With 96,000 units to process and a launch deadline to hit, this wasn’t a job that could afford a slow ramp-up. Fira configured its production line to handle the volume efficiently, running extended shifts to keep pace with the schedule. Every unit received the same controlled coating application and curing cycle, with ongoing quality checks against the approved specification.
The project also highlighted one of Fira’s core advantages as a UK-based decorator: when overseas production fails, having the problem shipped back to the Far East for rework means another 14-week wait. With Fira, the fix happened on-site, under direct quality control, and on a timeline measured in days rather than months.
All 96,000 units were rescued, recoated, and returned to the client in time for their launch. What could have been a catastrophic write-off became a successful product release – and a compelling example of why having a capable domestic decoration partner matters, especially when things go wrong elsewhere in the supply chain.
