Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. held a business supplier conference here on Friday, April 27, to build relationships with potential local suppliers with applicable capabilities to support the company’s pursuit of the Instrument Unit contract for the Ares I Launch Vehicle.
Since opening its office in February, Ball Aerospace has relocated 35 employees to Huntsville, including Bill Townsend, vice president for Exploration Systems. Ball Aerospace is accessing suppliers for fulfilling future requirements expected from NASA to support its design, development, and production phases of the Ares I Instrument Unit. The event created the opportunity for local suppliers to describe their capabilities to fulfill associated needs of the Instrument Unit life cycle. The Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle will launch the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle, the system currently being designed to replace the space shuttle after its retirement in 2010.
The day’s activities concluded with a tree-planting ceremony at the Botanical Gardens that included Huntsville Mayor Loretta Spencer, and President and CEO of Ball Aerospace, David L. Taylor. With the planting of the Skyrocket juniper, Taylor said Ball Aerospace was literally “putting down roots” in Huntsville.
“Since opening our office, Ball Aerospace has received an extremely warm welcome from the gracious and hospitable Huntsville community,” said Taylor. “This week’s events provided us with outstanding opportunities to meet with many of those who will ultimately support the work necessary for Ball’s Ares pursuit,” said Taylor.
Ball Aerospace currently has approximately $24 million in business in the Huntsville area with suppliers that include Axsys Technologies, Inc., AZ Technology, SEA Wire & Cable Inc., Technical Micronics Control, and the University of Alabama, Huntsville, and many others.
Ball Aerospace supports critical missions of important national agencies such as the Department of Defense, NASA, NOAA and other U.S. government and commercial entities. The company develops and manufactures spacecraft, advanced instruments and sensors, components, data exploitation systems and RF solutions for strategic, tactical and scientific applications. Over the past 50 years, Ball Aerospace has been responsible for numerous technological and scientific “firsts” and now acts as a technology innovator for the aerospace market.
Ball Corporation (NYSE: BLL) is a supplier of high-quality metal and plastic packaging products and owns Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. Ball reported 2006 sales of $6.6 billion and employs 15,500 people.
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 http://www.sec.gov. Factors that might affect our packaging segments include fluctuation in consumer and customer demand and preferences; availability and cost of raw materials, including recent significant increases in resin, steel, aluminum and energy costs, and the ability to pass such increases on to customers; competitive packaging availability, pricing and substitution; changes in climate and weather; crop yields; industry productive capacity and competitive activity; failure to achieve anticipated productivity improvements or production cost reductions, including those associated with our beverage can end project; the German mandatory deposit or other restrictive packaging laws; changes in major customer or supplier contracts or loss of a major customer or supplier; changes in foreign exchange rates, tax rates and activities of foreign subsidiaries; the effect of LIFO accounting and any changes to such accounting. 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; successful or unsuccessful acquisitions, joint ventures or divestitures; integration of recently acquired businesses; regulatory action or laws including tax, environmental and workplace safety; 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.
