American Ball Corporation Expanding in the Czech Republic, Planning Development

The company is investing nearly CZK 4.5 billion in a new plant in the Plzeň region.

The multinational Ball Corporation, the largest manufacturer of fully recyclable beverage containers in the Czech Republic, is expanding its activities here.

The company is building its second production facility in the Plzeň region and is also planning to construct a development centre.

It is investing nearly CZK 4.5 billion in the new plant and equipping it with the latest automated technologies. In addition to that, it is offering high-skilled engineering jobs. The company plans to put the plant into operation in autumn 2022.

“We plan to install sophisticated automated equipment at the facility, leveraging the latest modern technologies to minimize environmental impacts, and strengthened by our recent commitment to 100% renewable energy to cover our operations in Europe,” said Gerhard Mayer, vice-president of Ball Beverage Packaging EMEA.

The investment in the amount of nearly CZK 4.5 billion is part of the company’s broader strategy to increase investments throughout EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa). At the same time, the company has begun assembling a technology team, which will further develop and improve its automated and semi-automated production lines.

“With CzechInvest’s assistance, we are establishing contacts with the University of West Bohemia in Plzeň and we plan to send new colleagues to gain experience at our plants within a worldwide network of branches,” explains Radek Mádr, manager of Ball Corporation’s Czech branch.

“We’re glad that another foreign investor in the Czech Republic is also adding development to its production activities and we will be pleased to further assist the company,” says Veronika Zajícová, director of the Investment and Foreign Operations Division of CzechInvest, adding: “Ball is also active in the space industry; its products can be found in, for example, the Hubble, Kepler and WISE space telescopes. Therefore, we would like to persuade the company to invest in this sector in the Czech Republic in the future, and we are ready to support it in that regard.”

CzechInvest not only intensively supported Ball Corporation’s Czech branch in establishing closer cooperation with the University of West Bohemia in Plzeň, but also arranged an important meeting for representatives of the company with representatives of the city of Plzeň. The topic of the meeting was Ball Corporation’s most recent investment in a fully automated plant, which will resuscitate a currently unused brownfield in the newly established industrial zone in the Borské terasy area of Plzeň.

In 2019, CzechInvest helped the company to obtain an investment incentive for its investment in newly installed technologies in the total value of CZK 887.93 million. At that time, the purpose of the investment was to improve processes, efficiently use resources and capacities, and support the company’s sustainable development and growth in the region.

The Czech Republic is an active member of the European Space Agency and numerous companies from the Czech Republic supply components for European rockets and satellites. These include, for example, the Brno-based companies SAB Aerospace and Frentech, as well as 5M in Kunovice and the Czech branch of Honeywell, which employs 750 aerospace research engineers in the Czech Republic.

More than 60 Czech companies and 20 research institutes are involved in space activities. The European GNSS Agency has been headquartered for nearly ten years in Prague, from which it manages the European Union’s activities in the area of satellite navigation systems.

About Ball Corporation

Ball Corporation offers consumers innovative solutions involving aluminium packaging in the areas of beverages, personal care, and household products. It is also a provider of services for the US government, primarily in aerospace and other technologies. Ball Corporation and its subsidiaries employ more than 18,300 people around the world and in 2019 reported net turnover in the amount of USD 11.5 billion.

More information is available at www.ball.com and on the company’s Twitter and Facebook pages.