EXHIBIT 99.1

Exhibit 99.1

Contacts: Ball Corporation ConAgra Grocery Products Company
Scott McCarty Kay Carpenter
Broomfield, CO Fullerton, Calif.
(303) 460-2103 (714) 680-1144


Ball, ConAgra Grocery Products Agree to Form Strategic Alliance

BROOMFIELD, Colo. Feb. 24, 2000 -- Ball Corporation [NYSE:BLL] and ConAgra
Grocery Products Company, a unit of ConAgra, Inc. [NYSE: CAG], announced today
that they have signed a definitive agreement to form a strategic alliance for
the manufacture and supply of metal food containers for ConAgra Grocery
Products.
Under the alliance, the two companies will form a joint venture company
called Ball Western Can Company to acquire and operate certain ConAgra Grocery
Products can manufacturing assets in California. Additionally, Ball will
purchase certain can manufacturing assets now employed in the ConAgra Grocery
Products plant in Newport, Tenn., and relocate them to an existing Ball plant
near Knoxville, Tenn. The new joint venture company and Ball then will supply
metal food cans and ends under long-term agreements to ConAgra Grocery Products,
whose requirements are currently about one billion cans and ends per year.

Ball and ConAgra Grocery Products said they expect to have the transaction
finalized by the end of March. ConAgra Grocery Products Company manufactures and
markets such well-known brand names as Hunt's tomato products; Wesson oils;
Orville Redenbacher's Popping Corn; Swiss Miss puddings and cocoas; Knott's
jams, jellies and preserves; Peter Pan Peanut Butter; Rosarita Mexican Foods;
Van Camp's Beans; and Healthy Choice soup and pasta sauce to name a few. ConAgra
Grocery Products is an operating company of ConAgra, Inc., a $25 billion
multi-national company that is the world's second largest food conglomerate.

Ball Corporation produces rigid metal and plastic packaging products,
primarily for foods and beverages, and supplies aerospace and other technologies
to government and commercial customers. The company reported 1999 sales of
$3.6 billion.

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