27.05.2010

Ball Packaging Europe honoured as Coca-Cola Enterprises’ Supplier of the Year

Award fo the second time in a row

Ratingen / Brussels, 27th. May 2010 – Ball Packaging Europe has been recognised as “Supplier of the Year” by Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) for the second time in a row. The award recognises Ball as one of the outstanding suppliers that contributed most to the success of the company in 2009, a year in which Ball supplied 2.4 billion cans to CCE in Europe. John Brock, Chairman and CEO of CCE, and Hubert Patricot, CCE President Europe, presented the award as part of CCE’s first Supplier Sustainability Summit in Brussels on 25 May 2010. The summit explored ideas and opportunities for collaboration between CCE and its suppliers to address sustainability issues.

“Ball Packaging Europe, again demonstrated outstanding collaboration with us at all levels of the organization to achieve joint goals and priorities. They are supporting our commitment to sustainable packaging by helping us to reduce the weight of our cans, and also helped us to deliver excellent service to our customers by providing a faultless and flexible supply of goods”, said Stephen Moorhouse, General Manager and Vice President of CCE’s European Supply Chain. “2009 was an excellent year for our business in Europe, and we partly owe this success to the strong relationships that we have built with suppliers such as Ball Packaging Europe.”

Rob Miles, Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Ball Packaging Europe, added: “We are delighted to have been awarded the Supplier of the Year Award by CCE for the second time in a row. Throughout 2009, we worked hard to build on our earlier successes with CCE, by actively becoming more customer focused. In working with, and for, such a successful company as CCE, we have been able to learn from their achievements and improve our own performance. In recent years sustainability has been a high priority for BPE and we are working hard to continuously improve our products and production processes and to reduce the resources we use to make our cans. It is Ball’s strategy to balance its economic, environmental and social impacts in all the company’s activities and to create value for its stakeholders.”

The Sustainability Summit was attended by 46 representatives from CCE’s Europe’s key suppliers. Working groups focussing on sustainability issues in the key areas of equipment, packaging, waste & recycling and water &energy identified several ideas and proposals which are now being evaluated based on benefit – environment, reputation and financial – and the ease and speed of implementation. CCE is committed to implementing a number of these initiatives during 2010 and 2011.

Contact:
Sylvia Blömker
Director Public Relations
Phone: +49 2102 130 451
Mobile: +49 172 514 1503
sylvia_bloemker@ball-europe.com

CCE Supplier Awards
CCE launched its Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) programme in 2007 and the programme is now implemented with all key suppliers. The SRM programme uses a rigorous scorecard process to measure performance and the awards are made based on the top-performing suppliers. Each CCE supplier is measured against 15 criteria in four key areas (quality, service, value and Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability). Performance is then reviewed by the CCE Procurement team to ensure that the value being delivered to CCE is closely aligned with the business’s broader corporate priorities, and to develop ongoing relationships. This is the second year that CCE has presented awards but the first time it has held an awards ceremony attended by all its suppliers. This year the awards have been combined with a Summit for discussion and collaboration on key sustainability initiatives.

Ball Packaging Europe
Ball Packaging Europe is one of the leading European beverage can manufacturers, employing 2,900 people at 13 sites in Germany, France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Poland and Serbia. The company is a subsidiary of Ball Corporation, 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 14,000 people worldwide and reported 2009 sales of approx. 7.3 billion US dollars.

Coca-Cola Enterprises in Europe
Coca-Cola Enterprises is the world’s largest marketer, producer and distributor of the products of The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC) Coca-Cola Enterprises manufactures and distributes TCCC products, as well as products for other brand-owners, in 5 European countries: Belgium, France, Great Britain, Luxembourg and The Netherlands employing around 10,500 people. Coca-Cola Enterprises is committed to minimising the environmental impact of its products and operations. CCE has established five corporate responsibility and sustainability strategic focus areas, three of which – Energy Conservation/Climate Change, Water Stewardship, Sustainable Packaging/Recycling, Product Portfolio/Well-being, and Diversity & Inclusion.

Forward-Looking Statements
This release contains "forward-looking" statements concerning future events and financial performance. Words such as “expects,” “anticipates,” “estimates” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Key risks and uncertainties are summarized in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including Exhibit 99.2 in our Form 10-K, which are available at our Web site and at www.sec.gov. Factors that might affect our packaging segments include fluctuation in product demand and preferences; availability and cost of raw materials; competitive packaging availability, pricing and substitution; changes in climate and weather; crop yields; competitive activity; failure to achieve anticipated productivity improvements or production cost reductions; mandatory deposit or other restrictive packaging laws; changes in major customer or supplier contracts or loss of a major customer or supplier; and changes in foreign exchange rates or tax rates. Factors that might affect our aerospace segment include: funding, authorization, availability and returns of government and commercial contracts; and delays, extensions and technical uncertainties affecting segment contracts. Factors that might affect the company as a whole include those listed plus: accounting changes; changes in senior management; the current global recession and its effects on liquidity, credit risk, asset values and the economy; successful or unsuccessful acquisitions, joint ventures or divestitures; integration of recently acquired businesses; regulatory action or laws including tax, environmental, health and workplace safety, including in respect of climate change, or chemicals or substances used in raw materials or in the manufacturing process; governmental investigations; technological developments and innovations; goodwill impairment; antitrust, patent and other litigation; strikes; labor cost changes; rates of return projected and earned on assets of the company's defined benefit retirement plans; pension changes; reduced cash flow; interest rates affecting our debt; and changes to unaudited results due to statutory audits or other effects.

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