Ball Acquires California Food Can Plant; Signs Long-Term Supply Agreement with ConAgra Foods
March 18 2004 - 5:00PM
PR Newswire (US)
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/
Copyright
Ball (NYSE:BLL)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jun 2024 to Jul 2024
Ball (NYSE:BLL)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jul 2023 to Jul 2024