BLL Ball Corp

Ball Acquires California Food Can Plant; Signs Long-Term Supply Agreement with ConAgra Foods BROOMFIELD, Colo., March 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Ball Corporation announced today it has acquired Ball Western Can Company, LLC, which owns and operates a metal food container plant in Oakdale, Calif. The purchase price was not disclosed. Ball Western Can was established in 2000 as a joint venture between Ball and ConAgra Grocery Products Company. Ball Corporation and ConAgra Foods have signed a long-term agreement under which Ball will provide metal food packaging to ConAgra Foods manufacturing locations in California, beginning immediately. "This acquisition solidifies Ball Corporation's presence in the important West Coast food container market and further strengthens our metal food container operations, which are an integral part of our packaging portfolio," said R. David Hoover, Ball's chairman, president and chief executive officer. The 370,000-square-foot plant manufactures steel foodcontainers for ConAgra as well as other food customers and employs approximately 240 people. The plant can produce more than one billion metal food cans annually, increasing Ball's total metal food can capacity to more than seven billion cans and making Ball the second largest provider of metal food cans in North America. Ball Corporation is one of the world's leading suppliers of metal and plastic packaging to the beverage and food industries. The company also owns Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. Ball reported 2003 sales of $4.9 billion. Forward-Looking Statements The information in this news release contains "forward-looking" statements. Actual results or outcomes may differ materially from those expressed or implied. As time passes, the relevance and accuracy of forward-looking statements contained in this release may change. The company currently does not intend to update any particular forward-looking statement except as it deems necessary at quarterly or annual release of earnings. Please refer to the Form 10-K filed by Ball Corporation on March 12, 2004, for a summary of key risk factors that could affect actual results or outcomes. Factors that might affect the packaging segments of the company are: fluctuation in consumer and customer demand; competitive packaging material availability, pricing and substitution; the weather; fruit, vegetable and fishing yields; company and industry productive capacity and competitive activity; lack of productivity improvement or production cost reductions; regulatory action or laws, including the German mandatory deposit or other restrictive packaging laws and environmental and workplace safety regulations; availability and cost of raw materials, energy and transportation; the ability or inability to pass on to customers changes in these costs, particularly resin, steel and aluminum; pricing and ability or inability to sell scrap; international business risks (including foreign exchange rates and tax rates) particularly in the United States, Europe and in developing countries such as China and Brazil; and the effect of LIFO accounting on earnings. Factors that may affect the aerospace segment are: funding, authorization and availability of government contracts and the nature and continuation of those contracts; and technical uncertainty associated with aerospace segment contracts. Factors that could affect the company as a whole include those listed plus: successful and unsuccessful acquisitions, joint ventures or divestitures and the integration activities associated therewith including the integration and operation of the business of Ball Packaging Europe; the number and timing of the purchases of the company's common stock; insufficient or reduced cash flow; regulatory action or laws including those related to corporate governance and financial reporting, regulations and standards; actual and estimated business consolidation and investment costs and the net realizable value of assets associated with these activities; goodwill impairment; changes in generally accepted accounting principles or their interpretation; litigation; antitrust, intellectual property, consumer and other issues; strikes; boycotts; increases in various employee benefits and labor costs, specificallypension, medical and health care costs incurred in the countries in which Ball has operations; rates of return projected and earned on assets of the company's defined benefit retirement plans; interest rates and level of company debt, including floating rate debt; terrorist activities, war or catastrophic events that disrupt or impact production, supply or pricing of the company's goods and services, including raw materials and energy costs, or disrupt or impact the credit and financing of the company's businesses; and U.S. and foreign economic conditions. DATASOURCE: Ball Corporation CONTACT: Investors, Ann 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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