Ball Corporation

Ball Corporation is the leading global supplier of innovative, sustainable aluminium packaging for beverage and aerosol products, as well as aerospace and other technologies and services. 

1880: The Ball brothers established a company that would eventually become an international success story.

1884: The brothers began making glass home-canning jars, the product that established Ball as a household name.

1886: The company was incorporated as Ball Brothers Manufacturing Company. At about the same time, the factory in Buffalo was destroyed by fire, the brothers began to consider moving their business closer to natural gas supplies.

1888: The company opened its first glass manufacturing facility in Muncie.

1889: The Ball company's headquarters and its glass and metal manufacturing operations had moved to Muncie.

1898: The company's F. C. Ball machine, patented, introduced mass production into its glass-blowing process and gave it a competitive market advantage.

1905: The company was producing 60 million canning jars per year and had acquired other glass manufacturers, expanding its operations to include seven factories in addition to its main facilities at Muncie.

1910: In a continuation of the company's difficulties in Muncie, workers organized with Local 200 (Glass Workers) of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) at the main facility, went on strike in March, with the strikers demanding wage increases.

1922: Renamed the Ball Brothers Company, it is best known for manufacturing fruit jars, lids, and related products for home canning.

1933: The Ball company faced additional challenges and opportunities during the Great Depression and World War II. Prior to this year, Ball was the largest domestic manufacturer of home canning jars.

1947: The final decision, which was handed down, restricted Ball's ability to acquire other glass manufacturers and other businesses producing glass-making machinery without prior court approval.

1949: Decreasing demand for canning jars caused the company to suffer its first net operating loss.

1950: The company hired a small engineering firm in Boulder, Colorado to develop a device that would more accurately weigh glass batch materials.

1956: · The formation of Ball Brothers Research Corporation.

1958: The launching of Sputnik by the Soviets ushered in the Space Age and created many new opportunities in the field of aerospace.

1959: The company began manufacturing aerospace equipment.

1960: The 1960s were years of unparalleled growth in the container industry, especially in the consumer beverage area. Ball, Edmund F., "From Fruit Jars to Satellites: The Story of Ball Brothers Company, Incorporated," Newcomen Society in North America.

1962: Its OSO-1 (Orbiting Solar Observatory) satellite, designed and built for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) with $1.4 million in grants, launched into space on March 7, at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

1964: An explosion killed three workers and damaged the company's OSO-2 satellite.

1967: Plastipak Holdings' history, profile and corporate video were founded, Plastipak is still owned and run by members of the Young family.

1969: Renamed the Ball Corporation, it acquired Jeffco Manufacturing Company, a maker of recyclable aluminium beverage cans, and became the largest producer of recyclable beverage cans in the world.

1970: In the mid-1970’s Ball also developed and introduced Freshware food containers.

1972: Fisher acquired a Singapore-based petroleum equipment company that built and sold production gear and provided engineering expertise to oil firms in the Pacific.

1973: Ball Corporation's stock went public on July 13. It became a publicly traded stock company on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock began trading at $26 per share on the NYSE on December 17, using the trading symbol BLL.

1974: Then, Fisher acquired a small California computer company.

1976: Fisher wasted no time in selling it for 40 cents per share.

1980: Birmingham, Frederic Alexander, Ball Corporation: The First Century, Indianapolis: Curtis Publishing Co.

1986: Ball entered into a joint venture with Guangzhou M. C. Packaging in China.

1987: Ball Corporation procured $180 million in defence contracts alone.

1992: The company acquired Kerr Group Inc.'s commercial glass assets for $68.4 million, which helped boost Ball's share of that market.

1993: · The acquisition of Heekin Can, Inc. in March. When Altrista Corporation became a separate company in April, Ball shareholders received one share of Alltrista stock for every four shares of Ball stock. That business ranked as one of that country’s most successful foreign joint ventures, and Ball had established five beverage can manufacturing plants in China, one in Taiwan, and one in Hong Kong.

1994: · The establishment of Ball's plastic container operations. Ball’s emphasis on quality has helped it compete well in the highly competitive can market: The company was the third largest supplier to the combined United States-Canadian food can market. The company launched its first plastic container development, originally basing this operation in Smyrna, Georgia. These changes were overseen by George Sissel, a longtime company veteran who had become CEO after Davis left.

1995: · The creation and sale of Ball-Foster Glass Container Co., a joint venture glass company with Group Saint Gobain, in September.

1996: Koenig, Bill, "Ball Corp. of Muncie, Ind., Selling Stake in Ball-Foster Glass," Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News, September 17. Ball sold its remaining interest in Ball-Foster to Group Saint Gobain, and exited the glass business.

1997: The purchase of M.C. Packaging Ltd. made Ball China's largest supplier of cans.

1998: · The acquisition of the metal beverage container assets of Reynolds Metals Company. The Ball Corporation moved its corporate headquarters from Muncie to Broomfield, Colorado, where it oversees global operations as a manufacturer of metal food and beverage containers, as well as a manufacturer of equipment and supplier of services to the aerospace industry.

2000: Ball joined ConAgra in a metal food container joint venture, Ball Western Can Company LLC, which was based in Oakdale, California.

2001: Altrista was renamed Jarden Corporation.

2002: Germany's Schmalbach-Lubeca AG, a $1 billion metal beverage canning company, was acquired in a deal worth about $855 million (EUR 900 million). Ball Packaging Europe was created around this acquisition.

2004: The company began building an $80 million aluminium can plant near Belgrade to serve the Eastern European market. The company's packaging technology development operations were consolidated at a site in Westminster, Colorado.

2011: Originally launched as a Kickstarter campaign, the reCAP Mason Jar Lid offers a contemporary upgrade to John Mason’s two-piece lid system (Rzepecki). Before this design, there were no single-piece, airtight, plastic storage lids available for Mason Jars.

2015: On November 19, Rzepecki patented several add-ons for the original reCAP Mason Jar Lid (US 2015032955A1), including the FLIP, POUR, ADAPTA, PUMP, and TAP Caps.

2021: Ball Reports Strong First Quarter Results

Your mission is our mission for our first Aluminium can and beyond, we've kept the same vision to help you be successful. From the determined marketing team seeking to elevate their product above the clutter to the emergency responder needing to monitor a disaster from above to the brave entrepreneur trying to get a new business off the ground, Ball is your “Can Do.” “Let’s Do.” And “Will Do.”

Maximizing value in all of our businesses. Expanding into new products and capabilities. Aligning ourselves with the right customers and markets. Broadening our geographic reach.