Bats Blood – The Legendary Wine from Transylvania

London, UK — July 12th, 2011 — Bats Blood Merlot is the excitingly delicious creation of Angelika von Klein under the tutelage of her mysterious Master from the historical region of Transylvania. This rich, dark red wine intrigues on its own, but is even more exotic and compelling in its unique miniature black coffin gift packaging!

Appealing especially to consumers with an affinity to the gothic, the romantic, and possibly even the macabre, this wine entices both wine lovers and those new to wine who also have a dark thirst for adventure and fun, an appreciation of evening romance, and an awareness of history and folklore.

Bats Blood makes the ideal gift for followers of the vampire genre, goths, Halloween aficionados, fans of Dracula, Twilight and The Historian, and anyone who relishes horror, steampunk, even Batman tales. On a larger scale, it’s also a terrific gift for a host to share at a dinner party, It is a perfect ice-breaker that is guaranteed to get the conversation and the wine flowing. Bats Blood is the ideal accompaniment to a costume ball and is a must-have at any Halloween party.

Angelika was inspired to launch Bats Blood through her affiliation with the goth community. A goth for decades, she regularly participates in gothic festivals such as the Whitby Goth Festival in the UK and the Leipzig Wave in Germany as well as steampunk festivals in the USA. She and her husband, a distinguished gentleman in the drinks industry who’s acquainted with wine producers in Romania, live in a remote gothic styled home—friends say it is reminiscent of The Addams Family house—that receives bats as frequent visitors. Bats Blood is the almost natural outcome of her love and familiarity with the romantic gothic genre and her husband’s passion for wines and er… spirits.

Angelika’s devotion for the product is contagious. She gushes, “The Master and ourselves are directing one of the most exciting product launches in the wine and spirits category for many years; some people may smile when they first hear the name – but Bats Blood is definitely no joking matter. The wine is magnificent and nothing has been spared in producing packaging that befits the brand and our wonderful customers. From the handmade wooden coffins to the silver block printing on the labels and from the branded corks to the elegant bottles, no pennies have been pinched and no bats or any other animals have been harmed. We are engaging with consumers – possibly like no other wine brand has ever done before. We recently displayed Bats Blood at the London International Wine Fair and the response we got from consumers was quite overwhelming.”

The first run of Bats Blood sold out before an official announcement could be made. Consumers have consistently remarked on both the elegance of the packaging and the high quality of the vintage, which exceeded their expectations. The wine is now being formally launched in a larger but still limited run. It is also available for preorder for Halloween.

Bats Blood is available in stores only as a gift pack. Single bottles are being made available to a selection of leading bars and restaurants.

About Bats Blood:

Plans for Bats Blood distribution began at the turn of the century when Angelika von Klein decided, with the devoted support of her husband and their winery partners, to create a wine that could be elegantly gothic, a little bit edgy but always romantic. Angelika, like the Master, seeks to ensure this wine is memorable due not only to its unusual name and packaging, but also to its unique appeal and exceptional quality.

Bats Blood results from harvesting, fermenting, and bottling Merlot wine grapes using centuries-old traditions in the heart of Transylvania. The bottles are shipped from the vineyards in Romania to Nottingham, UK for packaging that was inspired by Angelika’s acquaintance with a funeral director. True hand craftsmen of Gotham (yes – the original Gotham that became the inspiration behind Batman’s home town) shape, assemble and paint wooden boxes into miniature black coffins. The distinctive gift packs are completed by placing each bottle into a coffin lined with cerise and sealing it with a transparent acrylic lid in order to display the classic Gothic face of the label. Bats Blood is distributed in the UK through 88 Signals Ltd., an early stage brand development company based in London,. Individual orders and orders for special events may be placed online at www.batsblood.com.

Consumer reaction can be seen through Facebook at www.facebook.com/batsblood

Contact for more information: ian@batsblood.com

0207-193 6672

In July 2010, a Baltic Sea shipwreck dated between 1800 to 1830 yielded many bottles of what is thought to be the world’s oldest champagne.

Five of the bottles later proved to be the oldest drinkable beer yet found.

The local government of the Aland island chain where the wreck was found has now commissioned a scientific study to unpick the beer’s original recipe.

Divers found the two-mast ship at a depth of about 50m in the Aland archipelago, which stretches between the coasts of Sweden and Finland in the Baltic Sea.

The ship was believed to be making a journey between Copenhagen in Denmark and St Petersburg, then the capital of Russia.

The salvaging operation to bring up 145 champagne bottles – since determined to include vintages from Heidseck, Veuve Clicquot and Juglar – had one casualty: a bottle that burst open at the surface, revealing itself to be beer.

The brew has already been sampled by four professional beer tasters.

“They said that it did taste very old, which is no surprise, with some burnt notes. But it was quite acidic – which could mean there’s been some fermenting going on in the bottle and with time it’s become acid,” said Annika Wilhelmson of the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT).

VTT has now been commissioned to get to the bottom of the sunken beer’s recipe.

“We’re going to try to see if we can find any living yeast or other microbial cells, because that would be very interesting with respect to reproducing the beer,” Dr Wilhelmson explained.

“So far we have seen under microscopes that there are yeast and bacterial cells, but we don’t know if they’re dead or alive yet. If we can’t find living microbes, we will look at the DNA and try to compare it to brewing yeasts that we know today, to see how similar or different the yeasts are.”

Pinning down which hops have been used on the basis of further chemical analysis may be difficult, Dr Wilhelmson added, meaning that reviving the 200-year-old brew for modern drinkers may prove difficult.

“Whatever we analyse, we’re going to have to do a lot of interpreting,” she said. “We need to analyse what it is today and start thinking about what it was like when it was made – when it was fresh, because it clearly isn’t fresh now.”

Constellation expects that net proceeds will be used to reduce borrowings. Any after-tax gain or loss recognized in connection with this transaction will be excluded from the company’s comparable basis diluted earnings per share. The impact of this transaction is expected to be neutral to ongoing reported basis and comparable basis diluted EPS for fiscal 2011 and neutral to slightly dilutive for fiscal 2012.

The company also announced that effective March 1, Jay Wright, president of Constellation Wines North America, will assume responsibility for Constellation New Zealand in addition to leading Constellation Wines U.S. and Vincor Canada, Constellation’s Canadian operations.

The latest official figures published by the German Brewers Federation show that in 2009 beer sales have dropped to their lowest level for 20 years.

Sales of all domesticly produced beers fell by 2.8% to just under 100 million hectolitres. (2.2 Billion gallons).

Despite the love that Germans have for their bier – in fact sales have been steadily declining since over the past decade with the exception of 2006 when a long hot summer combined with the hosting of the World Cup to produce increased beer sales.

Germany is Europe’s largest economy and it is believed that the figures are a reflection of a sharp 5% contraction in the Country’s output in 2009.

The reduction in the number of blue collar jobs and German’s changing social habits are probably the longer term contributory factors that could result in further erosions into average consumption figures.

We shall see.

Heineken acquires additional brewery capacity in Nigeria

As if making the oldest known leather shoe wasn‘t enough, a prehistoric people in what‘s now Armenia also built the world’s oldest known winery, a new study says.

Undertaken at a burial site, their winemaking may have been dedicated to the dead—and it likely required the removal of any fancy footwear.

Near the village of Areni, in the same cave where a stunningly preserved, 5,500-year-old leather moccasin was recently found, archaeologists have unearthed a wine press for stomping grapes, fermentation and storage vessels, drinking cups, and withered grape vines, skins, and seeds, the study says.

“This is the earliest, most reliable evidence of wine production,” said archaeologist Gregory Areshian of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

“For the first time, we have a complete archaeological picture of wine production dating back 6,100 years,” he said.

The prehistoric winemaking equipment was first detected in 2007, when excavations co-directed by Areshian and Armenian archaeologist Boris Gasparyan began at the Areni-1 cave complex.

In September 2010 archaeologists completed excavations of a large, 2-foot-deep (60-centimeter-deep) vat buried next to a shallow, 3.5-foot-long (1-meter-long) basin made of hard-packed clay with elevated edges.

The installation suggests the Copper Age vintners pressed their wine the old-fashioned way, using their feet, Areshian said.

Juice from the trampled grapes drained into the vat, where it was left to ferment, he explained.

The wine was then stored in jars—the cool, dry conditions of the cave would have made a perfect wine cellar, according to Areshian, who co-authored the new study, published Tuesday in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

Wine Traces

To test whether the vat and jars in the Armenian cave had held wine, the team chemically analyzed pottery shards—which had been radiocarbon-dated to between 4100 B.C. and 4000 B.C.—for telltale residues.

The chemical tests revealed traces of malvidin, the plant pigment largely responsible for red wine’s color.

“Malvidin is the best chemical indicator of the presence of wine we know of so far,” Areshian said.

Ancient-wine expert Patrick E. McGovern, a biomolecular archaeologist at the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia, agrees the evidence argues convincingly for a winemaking facility.

One thing that would make the claim a bit stronger, though, said McGovern, who wasn’t involved in the study, is the presence of tartaric acid, another chemical indicator of grapes. Malvidin, he said, might have come from other local fruits, such as pomegranates.

Combined with the malvidin and radiocarbon evidence, traces of tartaric acid “would then substantiate that the facility is the earliest yet found,” he said.

“Later, we know that small treading vats for stomping out the grapes and running the juice into underground jars are used all over the Near East and throughout the Mediterranean,” he added.

(Related: “Ancient Christian ‘Holy Wine’ Factory Found in Egypt.”)

Winery Discovery Backed Up by DNA?

McGovern called the discovery “important and unique, because it indicates large-scale wine production, which would imply, I think, that the grape had already been domesticated.”

As domesticated vines yield much more fruit than wild varieties, larger facilities would have been needed to process the grapes.

McGovern has uncovered chemical and archaeological evidence of wine, but not of a winery, in northern Iran dating back some 7,000 years—around a thousand years earlier than the new find.

But the apparent discovery that winemaking using domesticated grapevines emerged in what’s now Armenia appears to dovetail with previous DNA studies of cultivated grape varieties, McGovern said. Those studies had pointed to the mountains of Armenia, Georgia, and neighboring countries as the birthplace of viticulture.

McGovern—whose book Uncorking the Past: The Quest for Wine, Beer, and Other Alcoholic Beverages traces the origins of wine—said the Areni grape perhaps produced a taste similar to that of ancient Georgian varieties that appear to be ancestors of the Pinot Noir grape, which results in a dry red.

To preserve the wine, however, tree resin would probably have been added, he speculated, so the end result may actually have been more like a Greek retsina, which is still made with tree resin.

In studying ancient alcohol, he added, “our chemical analyses have shown tree resin in many wine samples.”

Ancient Drinking Rituals

While the identities of the ancient, moccasin-clad wine quaffers remain a mystery, their drinking culture likely involved ceremonies in honor of the dead, UCLA’s Areshian believes.

“Twenty burials have been identified around the wine-pressing installation. There was a cemetery, and the wine production in the cave was related to this ritualistic aspect,” Areshian speculated.

Significantly, drinking cups have been found inside and around the graves.

McGovern, the ancient-wine expert, said later examples of ancient alcohol-related funerary rituals have been found throughout the world.

In ancient Egypt, for example, “you have illustrations inside the tombs showing how many jars of beer and wine from the Nile Delta are to be provided to the dead,” McGovern said. (Also see “Scorpion King’s Wines—Egypt’s Oldest—Spiked With Meds.”)

“I guess a cave is secluded, so it’s good for a cemetery, but it’s also good for making wine,” he added. “And then you have the wine right there, so you can keep the ancestors happy.”

Future work planned at Areni will further investigate links between the burials and winemaking, study leader Areshian said.

Winemaking as Revolution

The discovery is important, the study team says, because winemaking is seen as a significant social and technological innovation among prehistoric societies.

Vine growing, for instance, heralded the emergence of new, sophisticated forms of agriculture, Areshian said.

“They had to learn and understand the cycles of growth of the plant,” he said. “They had to understand how much water was needed, how to prevent fungi from damaging the harvest, and how to deal with flies that live on the grapes.

“The site gives us a new insight into the earliest phase of horticulture—how they grew the first orchards and vineyards,” he added.

University of Pennsylvania archaeologist Naomi Miller commented that “from a nutritional and culinary perspective, wine expands the food supply by harnessing the otherwise sour and unpalatable wild grape.

“From a social perspective, for good and ill,” Miller said, “alcoholic beverages change the way we interact with each other in society.”

James Owen

for National Geographic News

Beijing Yanjing Beer Group Corporation, China’s third-biggest beer brewer by sales, is expanding in its traditional best-selling area of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, by purchasing a local brand called Jinchuan.

Yanjing’s Shenzhen-listed subsidiary Beijing Yanjing Brewery Co Ltd bought a 96 percent stake in Inner Mongolia Jinchuan Health Care Beer High Tech Co Ltd (Jinchuan) for 150 million yuan ($23 million), the Oriental Morning Post reported on Wednesday, citing Yanjing’s board secretary Liu Xiangyu.

The report also said that Jinchuan’s executives will hold the remaining 4 percent stake, which is not for sale.

Jinchuan has an annual beer production capacity of 100,000 tons and the brand name will continue to be used, Liu said.

The deal was completed in late December and means Yanjing now owns nine breweries in central and western Inner Mongolia, taking a market share of more than 70 percent there.

The second-biggest operator in the district is China Resources Snow Breweries Co Ltd, which owns three breweries in eastern Inner Mongolia and has a market share of about 20 percent.

China National Food Industry Association Beer Sector Commission said Yanjing will also invest 300 million yuan in Bayannur city to build a new factory with an output capacity of 200,000 tons, double Jinchuan’s current total production capacity.

According to previous reports in the Chinese Securities Journal, Li Fucheng, president of the board of directors of Beijing Yanjing, said the company plans to increase output by 3 million tons during the next five years. Two million tons will come from improvements to the production line, and the other 1 million from acquisitions.

In the past year, Yanjing has paid 227 million yuan to purchase two beer companies in Henan province. Henan was thought the last place in Central China that the big three beer giants (Tsingtao Brewery Co Ltd, Snow Breweries and Yanjing) hadn’t yet established a presence.

“We believe Yanjing’s further investment in Inner Mongolia is to build a market in which it can be dominant, because the nearby Hebei province and Beijing have been its traditional best-selling areas,” said Zhou Jigeng, a food and beverage industry analyst at Guolian Securities.

“To become more concentrated is a clear trend for China’s beer industry. Acquisitions are helpful to big companies because they can obtain the local brand’s marketing networks for nearly no cost.”

According to company data, Yanjing currently has an annual production capability of 500 tons.

Yanjing realized sales revenue of 8.96 billion yuan in the first three quarters of 2010, up 8.1 percent year-on-year. Its net profit of 712 million yuan during the same period was a 26.1 percent increase year-on-year.

Coca-Cola Enterprises have added a sugar free extension to their Relentless range in the UK off trade.

Stuart Agates, Head of Energy at Coca-cola Enterprises said: “Relentless continues to offer retailers a great sales opportunity, it’s performing extremely well and is now worth £52.2m. 90% of Relentless shoppers want diet drinks on the go, so the launch of Libertus is a great addition to the brand portfolio. It will increase shoppers’ choice in diet energy and offer new usage occasions, adding additional value to the energy sector.

“Relentless is an exciting, innovative brand and the new insignia and eye-catching pack design across the range will create strong in-store presence for shoppers. Our multi-million pound marketing campaign in 2011 will continue its association with music, action sports and motor sports, including headline sponsorships of major festivals in GB. ”

Hogan’s Cider spreads New Year cheer
across the USA!
Cider lovers across the USA have been celebrating Christmas and New Year
with a glass of authentic English cider, thanks to the success of an export deal
that has seen UK-based Hogan’s Cider ship bottled product across the
Atlantic.
The new venture follows on from the enthusiastic reception of the draught
version exported earlier last year to US speciality beer importer Shelton
Brothers of Massachusetts who source hand-crafted beers and ciders from
around the globe.

Brian Duffy the veteran head of Guinness has been appointed Global Category Director for all of the beers within the Diageo portfolio. This division accounts for sales of over $3 billion.

Among some of the brands that fall under his remit include Harp, Tusker, Red Stripe and of course Guinness which accounts for over half of Diageo’s total beer sales.

The board of directors of the Brewers Association (BA), the trade association representing the majority of U.S. brewing companies, has voted to change the BA’s designation of “small” in its definition of a “craft brewer.” The Association’s board of directors also has revised its bylaws to reflect the change.

In the BA’s craft brewer definition, the term “small” now refers to any independent brewery that produces up to 6 million barrels of traditional beer. The previous definition capped production at 2 million barrels. The changed definition is currently in effect and can be reviewed on the BA website, BrewersAssociation.org. The change to the bylaws went into effect December 20, 2010.

In the Brewers Association’s bylaws, two classes of membership (Professional Packaging Brewers and Associate membership) have been redefined with a qualifying barrelage of 6 million barrels versus 2 million barrels.

The association cited several reasons for the change, including the recognition that “small” is a descriptive term relative to the overall size of the industry.

“Thirty-four years have passed since the original small brewers tax differential defined small brewers as producing less than 2 million barrels,” said Nick Matt, chair of the Brewers Association board of directors and chairman and CEO of F.X. Matt Brewing Company. “A lot has changed since 1976. The largest brewer in the U.S. has grown from 45 million barrels to 300 million barrels of global beer production.”

Matt added, “The craft brewer definition and bylaws now more accurately reflect and align with our government affairs efforts.” On the legislative front in 2010, the Brewers Association supported H.R. 4278/S. 3339, which sought to update the cap on an excise tax differential for small brewers to 6 million barrels per year in production for their first 2 million barrels.

The industry’s largest craft brewer, The Boston Beer Company, is poised to become the first craft brewer to surpass 2 million barrels of traditional beer within the next few years. Loss of The Boston Beer Company’s production in craft brewing industry statistics would inaccurately reflect on the craft brewing industry’s market share.

In addition to Boston Beer, the current growth trajectory of other sizable BA member breweries places them on a course approaching the 2 million barrel threshold in the coming years.

“With this change to the craft brewer definition and BA bylaws, statistics will continue to accurately reflect the 30-year growth of market share for craft brewed beer,” said Matt. “Brewers Association statistics on craft brewers will continue to keep pace with the growth of the industry.”

Craft brewed beer market share is now approximately five percent of the U.S. beer industry, and growing. The BA has a stated mission of helping America’s craft brewers achieve more than five percent market share by 2013.

Matt added, “Rather than removing members due to their success, the craft brewing industry should be celebrating our growth.”

Based in Boulder, Colorado, USA, the Brewers Association (BA) is the not-for-profit trade and education association dedicated to small and independent American

brewers, their craft beers and the community of brewing enthusiasts. Visit BrewersAssociation.org to learn more. The association’s activities include events and publishing: CraftBeer.com, World Beer Cup®; Great American Beer Festival®; Craft Brewers Conference and BrewExpo America®; National Homebrewers Conference; National Homebrew Competition; SAVOR: An American Craft Beer & Food Experience; American Craft Beer Week; Zymurgy magazine; The New Brewer magazine; and books on beer and brewing. The Brewers Association has an additional membership division of 22,000+ homebrewers: American Homebrewers Association.

Beer lovers are invited to learn more about the dynamic world of craft beer at CraftBeer.com.

Carlsberg has sold their interests in the Feldschlosschen Brewery in Dresden, Germany.

They have worked hard to protect the jobs of the 172 employees at the brewery and have concluded the sale to Frankfurter Brauhaus.

Carlsberg have also sealed an agreement for continued local representation and logistical support through the new owners.

The Felschlosschen Brewery has an annual capacity of 1.9 million hectolitres.

For those not familiar ; The Frankfurter Brauhaus has their headquarters in the “other” Frankfurt – Frankfurt an Oder in the former East Germany. They were formed in 1988 and were once a part of the giant Dortmund based Brau & Brunnen Group.  You can find out more about the new owners here: http://www.frankfurter-brauhaus.de/

Ed Pilkington, the Global Category Director for Vodka, Gin and Rum at Diageo hosted a conference call for Diageo investors and analysts and conducted a full question and answer session that makes for interesting reading especially if you have an interest in the Rum category in general or in Diageo’s thinking about their competitive advantages.

You can read the full transcript here: http://drinksdaily.com/transcript-of-diageo-global-rum-conference-with-analysts/

I will try and get a digital copy of the audio files for the site later this week if possible.

In addition the agreement includes that two of Waysnows brands “Waysnow” and Jigongshan will also be sold to AB InBev.

Tsingtao Brewery currently has no production facilities in Henan province. Waysnow is the second largest brewer in Henan. It owns four beer production bases in Zhengzhou, Xinyang, Gushi and the forth one in Hebei province. as well as a malt manufacturing company.

If Tsingtao are going to complete this deal it looks likely that they will have to increase their offer.

According to statistics from ocn.com.cn, there are currently eight small and medium-sized brewers that could be available for acquisition.

Schlitz – The Beer that Made Milwaukee Famous – and once the biggest selling beer brand in America is making a huge comeback as more and more young people find the style and allure of iconic products from their grandparents generation irresistable.

The brewery which owns the brand – The Pabst Brewing Company have recently been acquired by the leading Private Equity firm C Dean Metropoulos. This has sparked renewed enthusiasm throughout the business to build on the growing following and legacy of the famous beer brand. The Company have plans to roll out the Schlitz brand into several key International territories.

The black vodka now comes in a distinctive black bottle which the company hopes will help to further project it’s premium heritage.

The look and feel of the bottle is further enhanced by a change of type and colour of the font.

I think it is a big improvement on the original packaging and the company should be able to look forward to renewed enthusiasm from retailers and perhaps some trial purchasing from new consumers.

Doubles all round!

Heineken N.V. today announced that, effective October 1, 2010, it will create a Global Business Services organisation focused on the most effective and efficient delivery of Purchasing and Business Process & Technology services across the company.

Frans Eusman, currently Managing Director, Heineken France, will be appointed Global Business Services Director reporting to René Hooft Graafland, Chief Financial Officer. In his new role, Frans will become a member of Heineken’s Executive Committee.

Frans will be succeeded as Managing Director of Heineken France by Marc Busain, currently Managing Director of Heineken’s Egyptian business, Al Ahram Beverages.

The current Group Business Process & Technology Director and Group Purchasing Director will continue in their existing roles, now reporting to Frans in his role as Global Business Services Director, and will form part of the management team of the Global Business Services organisation.

Over time, it is envisaged that the Global Business Services organisation will also explore opportunities to improve transactional financial shared services.

Commenting on the change, Jean-François van Boxmeer, Heineken’s Chairman & Chief Executive Officer said, “Given the scale and speed of our organisational development, we believe there is considerable benefit in moving towards a more structured approach to providing business services. With Frans’ extensive knowledge and experience across our business, he is the right person to lead this ambitious and long-term initiative.”

Press enquiries

John Clarke

Tel: +31 (0)20 5239 355

john.g.clarke@heineken.com

Investor and analyst enquiries

Jan van de Merbel

Tel: +31 (0)20 5239 590

investors@heineken.com

Ball Corporation (NYSE: BLL) and Coors Light are bringing yet another eye-catching, highly functional packaging innovation to market that is bolder, colder and more portable than ever before. Coors Light is launching the 16-oz. resealable Silver Bullet Aluminum Pint in Alumi-Tek bottles nationally on September 1, just in time for football season.

“The Coors Light Silver Bullet bottle represents a great opportunity for us,” said Rick Gomez, vice president, Coors Family of Brands. “We’ve seen our past innovations drive share and volume growth. And we’re going to really leverage the Silver Bullet bottle to gain incremental distribution.”

With its striking design emphasizing the Cold Activated mountains, the new Silver Bullet Aluminum Pint reinforces Coors Light’s positioning as the World’s Most Refreshing Beer, according to Gomez. The bottle delivers portability with a resealable twist off cap and wide mouth opening for a smooth pour. Cold Activated technology provided by thermochromic graphics printed on the bottle plus a Cold Activation Window in the secondary packaging lets consumers see that the beer is cold before they buy it. The unbreakable, 100 percent recyclable bottle helps keep beer cold and is perfect for any occasion, including patios, beaches, sporting events and other occasions in which glass may not be appropriate.

In addition to beer, Ball’s light weight Alumi-Tek bottle can be used for a wide variety of beverages, such as carbonated soft drinks, juices, energy drinks, enhanced water and beverages requiring retort processing. Ball leverages its two-piece aluminum beverage can manufacturing expertise to produce the Alumi-Tek bottle because the manufacturing technology for both packages is very similar. The bottles have the same high quality graphics found on cans and are decorated with the same printing process. Ball manufactures both 12-oz. and 16-oz. bottles at its plant in Monticello, Ind.

Ball Corporation is a supplier of high-quality 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 13,000 people worldwide and reported 2009 sales of more than $7.3 billion including discontinued operations. For the latest Ball news and for other company information, please visit www.ball.com.

Fosters Full Year Results

• Net profit (pre material items and SGARA) $711.3 million

• Earnings per share (pre material items and SGARA) 36.9 cents

• Material items loss after tax of $1,162.7 million, SGARA loss after tax of $13.0 million

• Net loss (post material items and SGARA) $464.4 million

• Operating cash flow pre interest and tax $1,371.5 million

• Net debt down $426.8 million to $2.2 billion