OI OI Glass Inc

PERRYSBURG, Ohio, April 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Owens-Illinois, Inc., (NYSE:OI) today announced that its plastics packaging business has finalized two joint ventures in Mexico. O-I HealthCare Packaging de Mexico has entered a 50/50 joint venture, O-I Pavisa S.A. de C.V., with Pavisa Industries, a leading Mexican plastics packaging company, to manufacture and sell plastic healthcare containers in Mexico and certain other Latin markets. "This is an attractive opportunity for O-I to enter the healthcare market in Mexico with a knowledgeable partner and at a new, best-in-class facility," said Mike Castillo, Latin America business development manager for Owens- Illinois HealthCare Packaging Inc. Additionally, O-I de Mexico has entered a 50/50 joint venture, O-I Mega S.A. de C.V., with Bepensa Industries, a leading Mexican soft drink producer, to manufacture and sell compression-molded, plastic carbonated soft drink (CSD) closures to Bepensa and other customers in Mexico. "The O-I Mega JV will benefit from O-I's advanced compression molding technology for manufacturing CSD closures which should help to expand our presence in the growing Mexican market," said David Beckmann, vice president, global commercial operations for Owens-Illinois Closure Inc. About O-I Millions of times a day, O-I glass containers, healthcare packaging and specialty closure systems deliver many of the world's best-known consumer products to people all around the world. With leading positions in Europe, North America, Asia Pacific and Latin America, O-I provides consumer-preferred products that enable superior taste, purity, visual appeal and value benefits for our customers' products. Established in 1903, the company employs more than 28,000 people and has 100 manufacturing facilities in 23 countries. In 2006, net sales were $7.4 billion. For more information, visit http://www.o-i.com/. About Grupo Pavisa Through its three divisions, Grupo Pavisa designs, manufactures and sells glass and plastics packaging, as well as crystal glassware products. Latino Americana de Vidrio, Pavisa's glass container division, is a leading manufacturer of high value added specialty glass containers in Mexico. Pavisa Industries, Pavisa's plastic container and closures division, has been a leading Mexican manufacturer of plastics packaging for over 30 years. Nouvel Studio, Pavisa's glass tableware division, designs and produces innovative crystal glass products sold around the world. For more information, visit http://www.pavisaindustries.com/. About Bepensa Industries Bepensa Industries has been a leading producer of soft drinks in Mexico for over 50 years. Bepensa is the exclusive bottler of Coca-Cola products in the Yucatan Peninsula-the Mexican states of Yucatan, Campeche and Quintana Roo. Bepensa is the largest bottler in Consorcio Orion de Bebidas A.C., an alliance of nine midsized and small Coca-Cola bottlers in Mexico. In addition to selling Coca-Cola products, Bepensa also produces and sells a number of other proprietary beverage products, including Bevi and Friolin, and bottles and sells Cristal, a purified water product in the states of Campeche, Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, Veracruz, and Chiapas. For more information, visit http://www.bepensa.com/. DATASOURCE: Owens-Illinois, Inc. CONTACT: Kelley Yoder of Owens-Illinois, Inc., +1-567-336-1388 Web site: http://www.o-i.com/ http://www.pavisaindustries.com/ http://www.bepensa.com/

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