Ball Corporation
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| Public | |
| Traded as | : BLL S&P 500 Component |
| Industry | Packaging, Aerospace |
| Founded | 1880 |
| Headquarters | Broomfield, Colorado, U.S. |
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Key people
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John A. Hayes (CEO) |
| Products | Metal containers, Packaging, Space manufacturing |
| Revenue |
 US$14.630 Billion (FY 2013)
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US$468.6 million (FY 2011)
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US$466.3 million (FY 2011)
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| Total assets |
US$7.285 billion (FY 2011)
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| Total equity |
US$1.219 billion (FY 2011)
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Number of employees
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15,000 |
| Website | ball.com |
Ball Corporation is an American company headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado, that is best known for its early production of glass jars, lids, and related products used for home canning. Since its founding in Buffalo, New York, in 1880, when it was known as the Wooden Jacket Can Company, the Ball company has expanded and diversified into other business ventures, including aerospace technology, and became the world's largest manufacturer of recyclable metal beverage and food containers.
The Ball brothers renamed their business the Ball Brothers Glass Manufacturing Company, incorporated in 1886. Its headquarters, as well as its glass and metal manufacturing operations, were relocated to Muncie, Indiana, by 1889. The business was renamed the Ball Brothers Company in 1922 and the Ball Corporation in 1969. It became a publicly traded stock company on the in 1973. Ball exited the home canning business in 1993. (Alltrista, a former subsidiary of Ball Corporation, spun off as a separate company and was renamed Jarden Corporation. Jarden is licensed to use the Ball registered trademark on its line of home-canning products, including glass jars and lids.)
In 1880, Frank C. and Edmund B. Ball, two of the five Ball brothers, borrowed $200 from their uncle, George Harvey Ball, founder and first president of Keuka College, to buy the Wooden Jacket Can Company, a small manufacturing business in Buffalo, New York. Soon, the three other brothers (William, Lucius, and George) joined Frank and Edmund in Buffalo. (Years later, the brothers reciprocated their uncle's early assistance by providing financial support to Keuka College.)
The Ball brothers' company made tin cans encased in wooden jackets to hold kerosene, paints, or varnishes. Because the acid used to refine kerosene caused corrosion in tin, the brothers decided to use glass for the inserts of the wood-jacketed cans. Initially, they bought the glass containers from a factory in Poughkeepsie, New York. Around 1885 a group of Belgian glassblowers who were passing through Buffalo encouraged the Ball brothers to build their own factory. The Ball brothers purchased land in East Buffalo, where they built a two-story brick building for the stamping works and a one-story frame factory for the glass works. Although a fire destroyed an early glass factory in Buffalo, the brothers rebuilt and expanded the business. To keep the new factory's furnace operating at full capacity, the company introduced new products and made improvements to its glass and metal manufacturing processes.
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Wikipedia