Ball Will Get Four Kerr Plants

Ball Corp. has acquired an option to buy a Kerr Glass Manufacturing Corp. plant in Orange County as part of a $70-million purchase of four glass container plants.

In an expansion of its glass making business, Ball, a Muncie, Ind.-based packaging company, said it agreed to purchase two of Kerr’s commercial glass manufacturing plants in Plainfield, Ill., and Sand Springs, Okla. The deal is subject to approval by each company’s shareholders and by the federal government’s antitrust regulators.

In addition, Ball will lease equipment and land for two additional plants, one in Santa Ana and another in Dunkirk, Ind. Ball will have an option to buy the plants later, said Bradley Wilks, a spokesman for Ball.

No changes are planned for the operations of the four plants, which generate an estimated $161 million in annual revenue and employ 1,300 people, Wilks said. The plant in Santa Ana employs 300 people and makes glass jars for products such as pickles or mayonnaise.

The Kerr plants will become part of Ball-InCon Glass Packaging Corp., which reported 1990 sales of $571 million. Among the Ball unit’s products are aluminum cans for beer and soda.