BLL Ball Corp

BROOMFIELD, Colo., Feb. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Ball Corporation (NYSE:BLL) announced today that Michael W. Feldser will become president of Ball Metal Food & Household Products Packaging Division, Americas, effective April 1 of this year. He has been president of aerosol & specialty packaging since joining Ball in early 2006. Feldser, 56, will have overall responsibility for all aspects of the division's business, which produces metal food cans, aerosol cans and specialty packaging at 17 facilities in the U.S., Canada and Argentina and had 2006 sales of $1.19 billion. Brian M. Cardno, 61, who has been president, metal food packaging, since 2002, has announced he plans to retire in May 2008. "We made considerable progress during 2006 in the integration of our metal food can business with the aerosol and specialty business we acquired at the end of March, and Brian and Mike worked well together in leading that process," said John R. Friedery, senior vice president and chief operating officer, Ball Packaging Products, Americas. "The next step in the integration is to place the combined businesses under a single management structure. "Mike is a 30-year veteran of the packaging industry and knows these businesses very well," Friedery said. "His knowledge and experience will help make this integration a success. Brian has made significant contributions to Ball during his 19 years with the company, particularly in our international and metal food container businesses, and we will draw on his knowledge between now and his retirement." Ball Corporation is a supplier of high-quality metal and plastic packaging products and owns Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. Ball reported 2006 sales of $6.62 billion and employs more than 15,500 people worldwide. Forward-Looking Statements This release contains "forward-looking" statements concerning future events and financial performance. Words such as "expects," "anticipates," "estimates" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Key risks and uncertainties are summarized in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including Exhibit 99.2 in our Form 10-K, which are available at our Web site and at http://www.sec.gov/. Factors that might affect our packaging segments include fluctuation in consumer and customer demand and preferences; availability and cost of raw materials, including recent significant increases in resin, steel, aluminum and energy costs, and the ability to pass such increases on to customers; competitive packaging availability, pricing and substitution; changes in climate and weather; crop yields; industry productive capacity and competitive activity; failure to achieve anticipated productivity improvements or production cost reductions, including those associated with our beverage can end project; the German mandatory deposit or other restrictive packaging laws; changes in major customer or supplier contracts or loss of a major customer or supplier; changes in foreign exchange rates, tax rates and activities of foreign subsidiaries; the effect of LIFO accounting and any changes to such accounting. Factors that might affect our aerospace segment include: funding, authorization, availability and returns of government and commercial contracts; and delays, extensions and technical uncertainties affecting segment contracts. Factors that might affect the company as a whole include those listed plus: accounting changes; successful or unsuccessful acquisitions, joint ventures or divestitures; integration of recently acquired businesses; regulatory action or laws including tax, environmental and workplace safety; governmental investigations; technological developments and innovations; goodwill impairment; antitrust, patent and other litigation; strikes; labor cost changes; rates of return projected and earned on assets of the company's defined benefit retirement plans; pension changes; reduced cash flow; interest rates affecting our debt; and changes to unaudited results due to statutory audits or other effects. http://www.ball.com/ DATASOURCE: Ball Corporation CONTACT: Investors, Ann T. Scott, +1-303-460-3537, , or Media, Scott McCarty, +1-303-460-2103, , both of Ball Corporation Web site: http://www.ball.com/

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