Footnotes/references Financials as of December31,2023[update][1]
Ball Corporation is a global aluminum manufacturing company headquartered in Westminster, Colorado. It 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,[2] when it was known as the Wooden Jacket Can Company, the Ball company has expanded and diversified into other business ventures, including aerospace technology. It eventually became the world's largest manufacturer of recyclable aluminum packaging for a variety of beverage, home and personal care applications.
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 moved 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 New York Stock Exchange under the ticker BLL in 1973. On May 10, 2022, the company changed its ticker symbol to BALL.
Ball no longer produces glass mason jars and the home canning business altogether in 1996 by spinning off a former subsidiary (Alltrista) into a free-standing company, which renamed itself Jarden Corporation. In 2016, Jarden Corporation merged with Newell Rubbermaid to become Newell Brands who owns the Ball brand for mason jars and home canning supplies.
History
Early years
In 1880, Frank C. and Edmund B. Ball borrowed close to $200 from George Harvey Ball, their uncle and founder and first president of Keuka College, to purchase the Wooden Jacket Can Company, a small manufacturing business located in Buffalo, New York. Soon, William, Lucius, and George Ball joined their brothers, Frank and Edmund, in Buffalo.[3][4] (Years later, the brothers reciprocated their uncle's early assistance by providing financial support to Keuka College.)[5]
The Ball brothers' company made tin cans encased in wooden jackets to hold kerosene, paints, or varnishes.[3] 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.[citation needed] Initially, they bought the glass containers from a factory in Poughkeepsie, New York.[6] Around 1885 a group of Belgian glassblowers who were passing through Buffalo encouraged the Ball brothers to build their own factory.[7] 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.[3][8]
Around 1884, when the brothers discovered that the Mason Improved fruit jar patent was due to expire, their company began manufacturing canning jars in their glassworks.[9] The Ball Brothers' jars, which were produced in half-gallon, pint, and midget sizes, were manufactured during 1884, 1885, and 1886. “Buffalo” jar lids were produced in a Ball Brother metal fabricating factory. The brothers decided to add their logo onto the surface of the glass jars, which were amber or aqua (blue-green) at the time.[3][10][11]
On February 13, 1886, the five brothers incorporated the business under the name Ball Brothers Manufacturing Company.[12] About the same time the factory in Buffalo was destroyed by fire in 1886, the brothers began to consider moving their business closer to natural gas supplies.[13] While on a business trip in Cleveland, Ohio, Frank heard about the natural gas boom in Findlay, Ohio. After visiting the town, he told Edmund about the economic advantages of using natural gas instead of coal for manufacturing glass. Edmund visited several towns in the gas fields, including Muncie, Indiana. The two brothers decided to make a more extensive trip to investigate the possibility of establishing a glass factory closer to an abundant supply of natural gas. They briefly had doubts about extending beyond Buffalo, but decided to explore the use of natural gas as a means of expanding their glass-making business.[3][14]
Frank and Edmund first visited in Fostoria, Ohio, where they were enthusiastically welcomed. The next stop was Bowling Green, Ohio. After a night in town, Edmund returned to Buffalo, but Frank remained. After Frank had been in Bowling Green for about a week, he received a telegram from James Boyce, a Muncie businessman. Frank, who had become weary of Bowling Green, was ready for a change and "decided to run down to Muncie and see what they had to offer."[15] As Frank recalled his early discussions with Muncie's town leaders, "There was nothing about the town that particularly appealed to me, but the men were all courteous, kind, and businesslike."[16] Frank agreed to a proposal that offered the Ball brothers 7 acres (2.8 hectares) of land for a factory site, a gas well, and $5,000 in cash to encourage the move to Muncie. In addition, city officials agreed to provide a railroad connection to the brothers' new facilities. By September 1887 construction had begun on the Muncie factory and the Ball brothers began plans to move their glass manufacturing operations from New York. Frank remained in Muncie to get the factory up and running, while Edmund closed the glass factory in Buffalo, then moved to Muncie to join Frank. Their brothers, William and George, remained in Buffalo to operate the stamping works and a factory in Bath, New York.[17][18][19]
In 1888 the company opened its first glass manufacturing facility in Muncie.[3][19] On February 18 fires were started in the new factory's furnace; on March 1 its first glass products were made.[9] The first products to be manufactured in the Muncie factory were oil containers and lamp chimneys, not fruit jars. By 1889 the Ball company's headquarters and its glass and metal manufacturing operations had moved to Muncie.[3][19] The other Ball brothers moved to Indiana in the 1890s. George moved to Muncie in 1893, William arrived in 1897, and Lucius, a company shareholder and a physician, moved to Muncie in 1894.[20][21]
In the late nineteenth century, the company continued to grow and prosper, but not without experiencing some challenges. Fires at its Muncie factories and warehouses in 1891 and 1898 damaged its facilities, which were eventually rebuilt. Despite the economic panic of 1893, the company was able to produce 22 million fruit jars for the year beginning in September 1894, and 37 million jars by 1897. When natural gas supplies in the area began to diminish, the Ball brothers installed gas converters to use Indiana coal in their factories and continued manufacturing operations. The company's F. C. Ball machine, patented in 1898, introduced mass production into its glass-blowing process and gave it a competitive market advantage. By 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.[3][22][23]
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, and went on strike in March 1910 in advocacy of wage increases. A settlement was quickly reached on March 29, but company management reneged on the agreement and threatened to declare a lockout.[24][25] The strike continued, but was weakened by the refusal of machinists affiliated with the American Federation of Labor to join the strike. By the end of April, the strike was lost.[26]
Diversification
For over 90 years, Ball continued to be a family-owned business. Renamed the Ball Brothers Company in 1922, it remained well-known for manufacturing fruit jars, lids, and related products for home canning. The company also entered into other business ventures. Because the four main components of their core product line of canning jars included glass, zinc, rubber, and paper, the Ball company acquired a zinc strip rolling mill to produce metal lids for their glass jars, manufactured rubber sealing rings for the jars, and acquired a paper mill to fabricate the packaging used in shipping their products. The company also acquired tin, steel, and later, plastic companies.[27]
The Ball company faced additional challenges and opportunities during the Great Depression and World War II. Prior to 1933, Ball was the largest domestic manufacturer of home canning jars. In 1939 it manufactured 54% of all the canning jars made in the US. A drop in demand for the jars during the 1930s led the Ball brothers to begin manufacturing other types of jars and bottles for commercial use, and eventually expanding into other lines of business. During World War II the company's operations were converted to produce shells and machine parts for the military.[28] After the war, Ball's glass-making business was hindered by an antitrust case in which the company was one of several defendants. The legal case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The final decision, which was handed down in 1947, restricted Ball's ability to acquire other glass manufacturers and other businesses producing glass-making machinery without prior court approval. In 1949 decreasing demand for canning jars caused the company to suffer its first net operating loss. With legal restrictions on the company's ability to expand its glass-making business and declining demand for its canning jars, Ball company executives decided to diversify the company to achieve growth.
Throughout the 1950s the Ball company explored expanding into the aerospace industry. The Ball Brothers Research Corporation began operating laboratories in Boulder, Colorado, and in Muncie. The company first began manufacturing aerospace equipment around 1959. 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, 1962, at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Its success led to additional contracts to build more satellites, a total of seven, but not without setbacks. An explosion killed three workers and damaged the company's OSO-2 satellite in 1964.[27][29]
The company continued to expand into other areas including avionics, aerospace systems, and metal beverage and food containers. Renamed the Ball Corporation in 1969, it acquired Jeffco Manufacturing Company, a maker of recyclable aluminum beverage cans, and became the largest producer of recyclable beverage cans in the world.[30][31][32] Although glass production in Muncie ceased in 1962, it continued at other Ball plants until its final glass manufacturing operations were sold in 1996.[27]
Ball Corporation's stock went public on July 13, 1972.[33] It became a publicly traded stock company on the New York Stock Exchange in 1973.[27] The stock began trading at $26 per share (not split adjusted) on the NYSE on December 17, 1973. Ball stock has split two-for-one six times since going public. Ball's trading symbol is BALL.
Ball no longer produces its glass canning jars. In 1996, Ball exited the home-canning business when it established a subsidiary named Alltrista, which consisted of seven smaller Ball subsidiaries that included the Ball jar and other canning-related products. When Alltrista Corporation became a separate company in April 1993, Ball shareholders received one share of Alltrista stock for every four shares of Ball stock. Alltrista was renamed Jarden Corporation in 2001. In 2016, Jarden merged with Newell Rubbermaid to become Newell Brands. Today, Newell Brands has the license to use the Ball registered trademark on its line of home-canning products.
Ball became the largest supplier of cans in the Chinese market when it acquired M.C. Packaging Ltd. in China in 1997. In 1998, the Ball Corporation moved its corporate headquarters from Muncie to Broomfield, Colorado, where it would oversee 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.
Continuing its growth through acquisition, in 2002, Ball acquired Schmalbach-Lubeca AG, a German-based metal-can beverage company and created Ball Packaging Europe. This move boosted Ball’s beverage can sales by more than $1 billion USD annually.
Sensing an opportunity to expand its packaging business in other categories, Ball entered the steel aerosol business in 2006 with the acquisition of U.S. Can, an U.S.-based steel aerosol and specialty metal packaging company.
2009 brought two milestones to Ball Corporation. First, on March 6, 2009, the Ball Aerospace-built Kepler spacecraft carrying the largest camera ever sent by NASA beyond Earth’s orbit, was successfully launched aboard a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral, FL. The second milestone arrived when Ball acquired four metal beverage can plants from AB InBev.
Just one year later in 2010, Ball owned the title of the largest supplier of aluminum slugs in the world with two acquisitions of Neuman Aluminumand Aerocan S.A.S.
In 2016, Ball acquired Rexam PLC to become the world’s largest producer of aluminum beverage cans.
Spearheading innovation in the aluminum beverage space, Ball introduced its innovative lightweight Ball Aluminum Cup® in 2019. The cup was recognized in Fast Company’s 2020 World Changing Ideas Awards with an honorable mention in the consumer products category. The cup is popular in sports and entertainment arenas and venues.
With the opportunity in sports and entertainment ripe, in 2020, Ball acquired the naming rights of Pepsi Center in Downtown Denver and renamed it Ball Arena. The naming rights were sold to Ball as a part of a global multi-year agreement with Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (KSE).
In 2024, Ball Corporation left the aerospace business after selling Ball Aerospace to BAE Systems for $5.6 billion in cash. The move was strategic in allowing Ball to increase its focus on “low-carbon, best-value aluminum packaging initiatives”, said CEO Dan Fisher at the time.
Company milestones
1880, Frank and Edmund Ball acquired the Wood Jacket Can Company, the predecessor to the Ball Corporation, in Buffalo, New York[3]
1886, incorporated as Ball Brothers Glass Manufacturing Company[12]
1887, a new glass factory was built in Muncie, Indiana; metal manufacturing operations continued at Buffalo and Bath, New York[3]
1889, the company's metal fittings operations were moved to Muncie[3]
1897, F. C. Ball Machine, the world's first semiautomatic glass machine, was invented (U.S. patent number 610515, issued in 1898)[34][35]
1909, The Correct Method for Preserving Fruit, predecessor to The Ball Blue Book was published; it featured home-canning recipes and techniques.[36]
1945, fire causes $500,000 in damages to Ball's glass plant number one in Muncie[37]
1956, Ball formed Ball Brothers Research Corporation to produce goods and services for the aerospace sector.[38] This was converted to a wholly owned subsidiary, Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., in 1995.
1961, Ball purchased Industrial Rubber of St. Joseph, MI. which was later sold to Chardon Rubber in 1978.[39]
1969, company name is changed to the Ball Corporation[20]
1969, Ball enters beverage can manufacturing by acquiring Jeffco Manufacturing Co.
1973, Ball became a publicly traded stock listed on New York Stock Exchange[27]
1993, Alltrista, a Ball subsidiary, was spun off into a separate corporation.[40] Renamed the Jarden Corporation in 2002,[41] Jarden merged with Newell Rubbermaid to become Newell Brands in 2016. Today, Newell Brands uses the Ball registered trademark on its line of home-canning products.
1994, Ball began manufacturing PET plastic containers.
1995, Ball created Ball-Foster Glass Container Co., a joint venture glass company with Saint-Gobain.[42]
1996, Ball exited the glass business, selling its interests in Ball-Foster to Saint-Gobain.[43]
1996, Ball enters the Brazilian beverage can manufacturing business forming the Ball-Embalagens Ltda joint-venture.
1998, corporate headquarters relocated from Muncie, Indiana, to Broomfield, Colorado[27]
2002, Ball acquired Schmalbach-Lubeca AG, the German-based metal beverage container company, and created Ball Packaging Europe.[citation needed]
2005, Ball celebrated its 125th anniversary.
2006, Ball acquired U.S. Can, Inc., the largest U.S. manufacturer of aerosol cans.
2008, Ball Corporation issued its first sustainability report.[44]
2010, Ball acquired Aerocan S.A.S., makers of aluminum aerosol cans and bottles, for $292 million.[45]
2010, Ball exits the plastics business, selling its interests to Amcor plc.
2020, Ball acquired Tubex Industria E Comercio de Embalagens Ltda in Brazil, for $80 million.[47]
2020, Ball acquired the naming rights of Pepsi Center in Downtown Denver and renamed it Ball Arena.
2024, Ball divested Ball Aerospace to BAE Systems for $5.6 billion in cash.[48]
Environmental record
Ball Corporation has made improvements to its environmental record since 2006, when the company began its first formal sustainability efforts.[49] In 2008, Ball Corporation issued its first sustainability report and began releasing subsequent sustainability reports on its website including the most recent Combined Annual & Sustainability Report.[44] The first report was an ACCA-Ceres North American Sustainability Awards cowinner of the Best First Time Reporter award in 2009.[50][citation needed]
Most recently, Ball has been recognized as a sustainability leader by organizations and governing bodies such as TIME’s list of the World’s Most Sustainable Companies of 2024, USA Today and Statista’s 2024 list of America’s Climate Leaders, FTSE4Good’s 2024 Index Series, S&P Global’s Sustainability Yearbook in 2023 and 2024, Newsweek’s 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 lists of America’s Most Responsible Companies and the 2022 Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI), among many others.
Muncie is an incorporated city and the seat of Delaware County, Indiana, United States. Previously known as Buckongahelas Town, named after the prominent Delaware Chief, it is located in East Central Indiana, about 50 miles (80 km) northeast of Indianapolis. At the 2020 United States Census, the city's population was 65,195, down from 70,085 in the 2010 Census. It is the principal city of the Muncie Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Delaware County. The city is also included in the Indianapolis–Carmel–Muncie, IN Combined Statistical Area.
Corning Incorporated is an American multinational technology company that specializes in specialty glass, ceramics, and related materials and technologies including advanced optics, primarily for industrial and scientific applications. The company was named Corning Glass Works until 1989. Corning divested its consumer product lines in 1998 by selling the Corning Consumer Products Company subsidiary to Borden.
Ball State University is a public research university in Muncie, Indiana. It has three off campus centers in Fishers, Indianapolis, and Fort Wayne.
Amphenol Corporation is an American producer of electronic and fiber optic connectors, cable and interconnect systems such as coaxial cables. Amphenol is a portmanteau from the corporation's original name, American Phenolic Corp.
Compagnie de Saint-Gobain S.A. is a French multinational corporation, founded in 1665 in Paris as the Manufacture royale de glaces de miroirs, and today headquartered on the outskirts of Paris, at La Défense and in Courbevoie. Originally a mirror manufacturer, it also produces a variety of construction, high-performance, and other materials. Saint-Gobain is present in 76 countries and as of 2022 employs more than 170,000 people.
AGCO Corporation is an American agricultural machinery manufacturer headquartered in Duluth, Georgia, United States. It was founded in 1990. AGCO designs, produces and sells tractors, combines, foragers, hay tools, self-propelled sprayers, smart farming technologies, seeding equipment, and tillage equipment.
The Hemingray Glass Company was an American glass manufacturing company founded by Robert Hemingray and Ralph Gray in Cincinnati in 1848. In its early years, the company went through numerous and frequent name changes, including Gray & Hemingray; Gray, Hemingray & Bros.; Gray, Hemingray & Brother; Hemingray Bros. & Company; and R. Hemingray & Company before incorporating into the Hemingray Glass Company, Inc. in 1870. The Hemingray Glass Company had factories in Cincinnati and Covington, Kentucky with main production in Muncie, Indiana. Although Hemingray was best known for its telegraph insulators, the company produced many other glass items including bottles, fruit jars, pressed glass dishes, tumblers, battery jars, fishbowls, lantern globes, and oil lamps. In 1933, the Owens-Illinois Glass Company purchased the company, but the Hemingray name was retained at the production facility in Muncie.
Minnetrista Museum & Gardens was founded in 1988. Built on the legacy of the Ball family and company, Minnetrista is a 40-acre museum and garden site located on the White River in Muncie, Indiana. The organization presents exhibits, nature trails, educational programs, and community events.
The Ball brothers were five American industrialists and philanthropists who established a manufacturing business in New York and Indiana in the 1880s that was renamed the Ball Corporation in 1969. The Ball brothers' firm became a global manufacturer of plastic and metal food and beverage containers as well as a manufacturer of equipment and supplier of services to the aerospace industry. In addition to the brothers' manufacturing business, they were also noted for their philanthropy and community service. Earnings from their business ventures provided the financial resources to support a number of other projects in the community of Muncie, Indiana, and elsewhere. Most notably, the brothers became benefactors of several Muncie institutions including Ball State University, Ball Memorial Hospital, Keuka College, the YMCA, Ball stores department store, and Minnetrista. The Ball Brothers Foundation, established in 1926, continues the family's philanthropic interests.
A Mason jar, also known as a canning jar, preserves jar or fruit jar, is a glass jar used in home canning to preserve food. It was named after American tinsmith John Landis Mason, who patented it in 1858. The jar's mouth has a screw thread on its outer perimeter to accept a metal ring or "band". The band, when screwed down, presses a separate stamped steel disc-shaped lid against the jar's rim.
Wabash National is an American diversified industrial manufacturing company and North America's largest producer of semi trailers and liquid transportation systems. The company specializes in the design and production of dry freight vans, refrigerated vans, platform trailers, liquid tank trailers, intermodal equipment, engineered products and composite products. Its products are sold under the following brand names: Wabash National, Transcraft, Benson, DuraPlate, Walker Transport, Walker Defense Group, Walker Barrier Systems, Walker Engineered Products, Brenner Tank, Beall, Garsite, Progress Tank, TST, Bulk Tank International and Extract Technology. The company operates a number of Wabash National Trailer Centers, trailer service centers and retail distributors of new and used trailers and aftermarket parts throughout the United States. In 2017, the total revenue was 1.77 billion USD.
Jarden was an American consumer products company. Formed by the spin out of Ball Corporation's canning business, the company became a wider conglomerate of consumer brands, particularly in the outdoors and home appliances market. Jarden was acquired in 2016 by Newell Rubbermaid, which renamed itself Newell Brands.
K2 Sports, LLC, known simply as K2, is an American sporting goods company headquartered in Seattle, Washington focused primarily on winter sports equipment. K2 operates under the labels K2 Snow and K2 Skates, as well as its subsidiaries Backcountry Access, Ride Snowboards, Tubbs Snowshoes, Atlas Snow-Shoe Company, LINE Skis, Full Tilt Boots, and Madshus brands. Famous users of K2 Skis include pro champion Spider Sabich, World Cup and Olympic champion Phil Mahre, and his twin brother Steve Mahre, World Champion and Olympic silver medalist.
Armstrong World Industries, Inc. is a Pennsylvania corporation incorporated in 1891. It is an international designer and manufacturer of wall and ceiling building materials. Based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, AWI has a global manufacturing network of 26 facilities, including nine plants dedicated to its WAVE joint venture. In 2011, Armstrong's net sales were $2.86 billion, with operating income of $239.2 million.
The Whitall Tatum Company or Whitall Tatum (1806–1938) was one of the first glass factories in the United States.
Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation, commonly known as Wabtec, is an American company formed by the merger of the Westinghouse Air Brake Company (WABCO) and MotivePower Industries Corporation in 1999. It is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The Indiana gas boom was a period of active drilling and production of natural gas in the Trenton Gas Field, in the US state of Indiana and the adjacent northwest part of Ohio. The boom began in the early 1880s and lasted into the early 20th century.
Verallia North America, formerly the North American division of Verallia, is a glass packaging brand of the multinational company Ardagh Group. It produces more than nine billion glass bottles and jars per year, from thirteen plants located throughout the United States and is headquartered in Muncie, Indiana.
The Indiana Bridge Company is the oldest manufacturer in Muncie, Indiana. Established in May 1886 in Indianapolis, Indiana, the company has a rich history of building truss bridges that spans not only Indiana but throughout parts of the United States. On November of the same year, the company moved from Indianapolis to Muncie where it would remain until today.
The Muncie Fruit Jars were a professional minor league baseball team based in Muncie, Indiana. The club was first formed in 1906 as a team in the class-C Interstate Association. The Fruit Jars' name was inspired by Muncie's local economy, which was the home of Ball Brothers Glass Manufacturing Company, famous for producing glass canning jars.
Africa, Philip A. (1974). Keuka College: A History. Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press. OCLC745947.
"Alltrista Corporation". International Directory of Company Histories. Vol.30. St. James Press. 2000. Archived from the original on April 3, 2014. Retrieved March 25, 2016– via Funding Universe.
Ball, Edmund F. (1960). From Fruit Jars to Satellites: The Story of Ball Brothers Company, Incorporated. New York: Necomen Society in North America. OCLC958552.
Ball, Frank Clayton (1937). Memoirs of Frank Clayton Ball. Muncie, IN: Scott Printing Company. OCLC3918177.
"Ball Corp". PERI: Toxic 100 Index. Political Economy Research Institute. August 2013. Retrieved March 25, 2016.
Edmonds, Anthony O.; Geelhoed, E. Bruce (2001). Ball State University: An Interpretive History. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. ISBN9780253340177.
Glass, James A. (December 2000). "The Gas Boom of East Central Indiana". Indiana Magazine of History. 96 (4). Bloomington: Indiana University: 313–335. Retrieved March 31, 2016.
Myers, George E. (1965). The Story of Ball Brothers. Ball Brothers Company.
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US$14.0 billion (2023)
US$1.27 billion (2023)
