Ball acquires metal packaging business Aerocan

The definitive agreement will see Ball acquire the business for €221m ($292m) by the first quarter of 2011, subject to regulatory approval, and the acquisition will also include the companies existing debts and liabilities.

Aerocan has three primary production sites in Europe, which are primarily concerned with the personal care, beverage and food, and pharmaceutical sectors. As well as packaging the company also produces aluminum slugs.

Production sites all over Europe​

The production sites include Velim in the Czech Republic, Bellegarde in France and Devizes in the United Kingdom, which are all concerned with the manufacturing of aerosol cans and bottles.

The acquisition also includes a 51 percent majority stake in a manufacturing facility in Beaurepaire in France, which is concerned with the manufacture of aluminum slugs.

“This is an important strategic step for our company, as it allows us to enter a growing segment of the metal packaging world where we can broaden our market development efforts into a new customer base,”​ said John Hayes, Ball’s president and chief operating officer.

“Acquiring Aerocan, like the purchase of Neuman Aluminum in the United States earlier this year, is aligned with our strategy of expanding our product portfolio and manufacturing capabilities while leveraging our extensive operational expertise in our global metal packaging businesses.”​

Aerocan acquisition builds on previous deal​

Ball is one of the leading names in consumer packaging in the US, but back in July it announced its debut in the personal care segment with the acquisition of Neuman Aluminum.

Neuman has production facilities in Virginia and Quebec that produce aluminum disks or slugs used in premium packaging for the personal care segment, together with the household, beverage and food industries.

The disks and slugs are the starting material from which extruded aerosol cans, beverage bottles, aluminum collapsible tubes and technical impact extrusions are all manufactured.

Neuman is one of the biggest players in North America for this segment of the packaging business and in 2009 it reported sales of approximately $128m.

The recent acquisitions will become a part of the much bigger Ball Corporation, which in 2009 had sales in excess of $7.3bn and employed 14,000 workers worldwide.