Ball Corporation announced April 23 that it will close its aluminum-beverage, can-manufacturing plant in Kent in the third quarter of 2008. A pretax charge of approximately $12 million ($7 million after-tax) will be recorded in the company’s second-quarter results. On final disposition of the facilities, the closure is expected to be approximately $4 million cash positive inclusive of income tax benefits.
The 28-year-old Kent plant is one of Ball’s smaller beverage-can manufacturing facilities. The facility operates two production lines capable of producing about 1.1 billion, 12-ounce beverage cans per year and employs 111 people.
“The viability of the Kent plant in the current market became increasingly unsustainable,” said John R. Friedery, senior vice president and president of Ball’s metal beverage packaging division, Americas and Asia.
Ball acquired the plant in 1998 as part of the acquisition of the metal beverage can assets of Reynolds Metals Company. The equipment from Kent will be redeployed within Ball’s worldwide beverage can system where the company can earn a better return on those assets.
Ball Corporation is a supplier of high-quality metal and plastic packaging for beverage, food and household products customers, and of aerospace and other technologies and services, primarily for the U.S. government. Ball Corporation and its subsidiaries employ more than 15,500 people worldwide and reported 2007 sales of approximately $7.4 billion.
