Operations will continue as normal for 191 employees at Rome’s Metal Container Corp. when it is acquired by Ball Corp., a spokesman with Ball Corp. said Wednesday.

“We intend … to run those plants and add them to our system,” Scott McCarty said. “It’s something we know very well, and we will keep making cans and ends” in four MCC plants Ball Corp. intends to acquire for $577 million.

MCC is a metal packaging subsidiary of Brussels-based Anheuser-Busch InBev, which announced the sale agreement. The brewer said in a press release that Ball Corp. agreed to offer employment to all active employees at the plants, and that Ball Corp. will enter into a long-term supply with Anheuser-Busch InBev.

Terry Clift, a former production manager at MCC, said he still has friends at the plant. “In my opinion it’s a good thing for the employees that Anheuser-Busch has sold Metal Container to Ball Corp.,” he said.

The four divested plants are more focused on soft-drink can production, Anheuser-Busch InBev said in the press release. The sale will allow the brewer “to rationalize capital while retaining those facilities that remain most relevant to our beer business,” Carlos Brito, chief executive officer, said.

The other three MCC plants being divested are in Fort Atkinson, Wis., Columbus, Ohio, and Gainesville, Fla.

Ball Corp., one of the world’s leading suppliers of metal and plastic packaging to the beverage and food industries, is based in Broomfield, Colo.

The sale is subject to regulatory approval but is not conditioned on financing and does not require shareholder approval from Anheuser-Busch InBev or Ball Corp. The companies expect the sale to be completed late this year or in the first quarter of 2010.