Business News

Ball to Cease Manufacturing Operations at Two PET Bottle Packaging Plants

Tuesday 14. April 2009 - Ball Corporation (NYSE: BLL) today announced that it will permanently cease manufacturing operations at polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic packaging plants in Baldwinsville, N.Y., and Watertown, Wis., and supply customers of those plants from larger Ball facilities.

As a result, an after-tax charge of approximately $14 million will be recorded in the company’s second quarter results. Cost savings associated with these actions are expected to be approximately $12 million annually beginning in 2010.

“Baldwinsville and Watertown are the smallest PET bottle manufacturing plants in our system,” said John A. Hayes, executive vice president and chief operating officer. “With the industry slowdown of demand for monolayer PET containers, it is important that we continue to focus on ensuring our cost base is competitive. Consolidating production capacity into larger, more efficient plants is necessary to better balance our supply with market demand and to improve the performance of our plastic packaging business.”

The Baldwinsville plant opened in 1996 and operates seven production lines capable of making approximately 1 billion recyclable PET bottles annually. It employs 113 people. The plant is scheduled to cease manufacturing operations by July 7, subject to customer requirements.

The Watertown plant operates four production lines with an annual capacity of approximately 250 million recyclable PET bottles and employs 52 people. Ball acquired the plant from Wis-Pak, Inc., in 2001. It is scheduled to cease manufacturing operations by June 7, subject to customer requirements.

Ball operates plastic packaging plants in Chino, Calif.; Atlanta, Ga.; Batavia, Ill.; Ames, Iowa; Belleview, Ohio; and Delran, N.J.