Ball Corporation to close two North American facilities

Ball Corporation announced October 12 that by the end of the year it will close two manufacturing facilities in North America as part of the realignment of the company's Metal Food & Household Products, Americas, segment following the acquisition earlier this year of U.S. Can Corporation.

Ball will close a leased facility in Alliance, Ohio, which was one of 10 manufacturing locations in the U.S. acquired from U.S. Can. The plant manufactures plastic pails, primarily for paints and chemicals. Equipment in the facility will be relocated to other Ball plants in Ohio and Georgia.

Ball's Canadian subsidiary will close a metal food can manufacturing plant in Burlington, Ontario, which was part of Ball's metal food can operations prior to the acquisition. The facility produces three-piece steel food can bodies and ends, and does metal cutting and coating. Some equipment from the plant will be relocated to other Ball facilities and the rest will be sold or scrapped.

"The opportunity to consolidate manufacturing operations into fewer facilities is critical to us realizing the synergies we knew were achievable following the acquisition," said John A. Friedery, senior vice president and chief operating officer, Ball Packaging Products, Americas. "We are carefully studying our entire manufacturing structure and expect there will be other opportunities to improve efficiencies by further realigning production capacities. We anticipate work on our realignment plan to be completed during the fourth quarter, with implementation continuing in 2007."

Friedery said employees at the facilities being closed will be paid severance and offered transition services. The Alliance plant has approximately 40 employees and the Burlington plant has approximately 300 employees.

Ball Corporation is a supplier of high-quality metal and plastic packaging products and owns Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. Ball reported 2005 sales of $5.8 billion and employs 15,600 people.