Businessmodel of Ball Corporation

Customer Segments

Ball Corp manufactures and sells a broad range of products, serving commercial and industrial customers across multiple markets. The Company’s core metal packaging business serves customers in the following sectors:

• Beverage, including producers of carbonated drinks, beer, energy drinks, and other soft drinks and beverages;
• Personal Care, including producers of various aerosol products;
• Automotive, including automotive companies, aftermarket care providers, and manufacturers of automotive paints and accessories;
• Paint, comprising manufacturers of commercial paint products;
• Healthcare, including pharmaceutical and medical product manufacturers;
• Household, including manufacturers of household items, notably household aerosol products;
• Food, including producers of various food products, including soups, fruit, seafood, meat, pet food, and other nutritional products. Ball Corp additionally provides products and solutions to customers operating across the defense and intelligence, civil and commercial aerospace, data services, and engineering sectors. In 2015 Ball Corp had three high-profile customers that accounted for more than 10% of the Company’s business: Coca-Cola Bottlers Sales and Services Company LLC, MillerCoors LLC and SABMiller PLC, and the US Government.

Ball Corp’s principal market is its native US. The Company, however, conduct significant business in foreign jurisdictions across the Americas, Asia Pacific, and Europe.

Value Propositions

Ball Corp provides value to its customers in the following ways:

• Its industry standing and reputation, with the Company established as one of the leading providers of metal container products, with a positive track record for reliable and efficient services, including high-profile entities such as the US Government and Coca Cola among its customers;
• The quality of its products, with the Company providing high-quality metal container and packaging products that utilise proprietary technologies and production processes that distinguish the Company’s offerings from those of its competitors;
• Its broad portfolio of products and services, with the Company offering a wide range of products and services, spanning metal packaging and advanced technologies, serving a diverse customer base including food and beverage producers, pharmaceutical companies, and aerospace companies; and
• Its international reach, with the Company serving an extensive domestic customer base in the US, as well as a large international customer base across the Americas, Asia Pacific, and Europe. ### Channels

Ball Corp operates a website at www.ball.com, through which it provides information on its various products, services, target markets, and operating locations. The Company also operates dedicated regional websites tailored to the needs of customers across its various operating regions. Ball Corp does not operate an online sales channel, nor does it provide an online customer portal.

Ball Corp makes sales of its metal packaging products through a direct sales force organised across its operating regions and business segments. These sales personnel deal directly with the Company’s clients, operating across the Company’s international network of offices, including its regional offices in the US, Brazil, the United Arab Emirates, Russia, and Hong Kong. The Company operates a separate specialist sales force dedicated to its defense and aerospace business, with several dedicated aerospace units located across the US.

Ball Corp operates its own manufacturing and distribution infrastructure, with various packaging production facilities spread across the Company’s operating regions, including locations across the Americas, Asia Pacific, and Europe. This network allows the Company to serve customers around the world quickly and efficiently.

Customer Relationships

Ball Corp does not provide products or services to its customers on a self-service basis. The Company arranges sales of its packaging products through direct consultation with its customers, establishing the details of each individual sales and distribution contract. The Company primarily sells metal beverage containers under multi-year supply contracts, developing longstanding customer relationships with major customers, and agreeing long-term supply contracts. Ball Corp works closely with its aerospace and defense clients, collaborating on advanced technology and technical projects.

Ball Corp provides ongoing support to its customers, in particular to its major clients such as Coca Cola and the US Government, which are provided their own account management teams. The Company provides contact details for its various operating divisions and offices, enabling customers to access personalised assistance and responses to enquiries. This includes a dedicated sales enquiry form which can be accessed through its website.

Ball Corp keeps its customers updated with company developments through its news and media portal, as well as through its social media accounts – including with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest – through which it is also able to interact directly with customers.

Key Activities

Ball Corp operates primarily as a supplier of metal packaging to customers in the beverage, food, personal care and household products industries. The Company also provides certain advanced technology solutions. Ball Corp aligns its operations into four reportable business segments: Metal Beverage Packaging, Americas and Asia, which is engaged in the Company’s core packaging business across North, Central and Latin America; Metal Beverage Packaging, Europe, which manages the Company’s packaging business in Russia; Metal Food and Household Products Packaging, which manufactures and sells specialist metal container products; and Aerospace and Technologies, which designs, develops and manufactures aerospace systems for civil, commercial and national security aerospace markets. Ball Corp serves a number of high-profile customers, including the US Government.

Key Partners

Ball Corp works in close conjunction with a network of partners around the world that help the Company to effectively fulfil its duties to its clients. These partners can be categorised broadly as:

• Supplier and Vendor Partners, including suppliers of raw materials, equipment, and tools that are utilised in the Company’s manufacturing operations around the world, as well as providers of services that are utilised more broadly across the Company’s operating segments;
• Technology Partners, including various technology and manufacturing companies that work with the Company to develop effective and innovative manufacturing technologies, as well as companies that support and maintain the Company’s enterprise-wide technology systems; and
• Joint Venture Partners, including various manufacturing companies with which the Company jointly provides products and services through mutually owned entities. Ball Corp operates a number of partnerships. This includes a partnership with Faultless Starch to develop an innovative new aerosol can, and an education partnership with the University of Colorado Denver. The Company is also a participant in the Recycling Partnership.

Key Resources

Ball Corp’s key resources are its technologies and intellectual properties, its materials and supply chain, its IT and communications infrastructure, its manufacturing facilities, its sales and distribution networks, its partnerships, and its personnel.

Ball Corp utilises a number of patented technologies and intellectual properties in its products. Searches of records published by the US Patent and Trademark Office identified a number of patent applications filed in Ball Corp’s name, including applications entitled ‘Container end closure with optional secondary vent opening’, ‘Printing process using soft photopolymer plates’, and ‘Two-piece contoured metallic container’.

Ball Corp’s network of manufacturing facilities are also key to its ongoing operations. This comprises a number of manufacturing plants across the Americas, Asia Pacific, and Europe, including in the US, China, Brazil, Germany, and India.

Cost Structure

Ball Corp incurs costs in relation to the development of its technologies and solutions, the procurement of supplies and materials, the maintenance of its IT and communications infrastructure, the operation of its manufacturing facilities, the operation of its sales and distribution channels; the management of its partnerships, and the retention of its personnel.

In 2015 Ball Corp recorded total cost of sales in the amount of $6.46 billion, and selling, general and administrative in the amount of $451.3 million. The Company recorded research and development costs totaling $26 million, which are included in the Company’s cost of sales.

Revenue Streams

Ball Corp primarily generates revenue through the manufacture and sale of various metal packaging products to the consumer goods, food and beverage and household product markets. The Company also generates a portion of its revenue through the provision of services and solutions to the aerospace and defense industries.

In 2015 Ball Corp generated revenue for the year of $8.00 billion, down slightly on the $8.57 billion recorded by the Company in 2014. Approximately $4.25 billion of this revenue was attributed to the Company’s Metal Beverage Packaging, Americas and Asia segment. The company’s other packaging segments generated revenue in excess of $1 billion, with the Company’s aerospace business accounting for around $810.10 million.