In 1971, Kerr Group, Inc., produced the first child-resistant plastic closure for the pharmaceutical industry, marking its successful evolution from a respected manufacture of home canning jars to a leading innovator in the specialty plastics closures business.  Kerr has built in this foundation to earn premier status in the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries.  Today with many new products and an expanded market focus, Kerr maintains strong relations with such respected companies as Abbott, American Home Products, Bayer, CVS, Hunt-Wesson, Merck, Pfizer, RJR Nabisco, Seagram, and Warner Lambert.  Working with customers who demand sophisticated design and tight manufacturing tolerances, Kerr has engineered several subsequent generations of child-resistant closures and introduced tamper-evident closures and complementary plastic vials and bottles as well.  Kerr led the closure industry in the replacement of metal with plastic closures and, in the process, established strong market positions in the pharmaceutical, prescription drug and distilled spirits industries.  In March 1998, as a first step in an aggressive growth strategy, Kerr formed a new food and beverage division for its acquisition of Sun Coast Industries, a niche leader in the plastic cap manufacturing for the food and beverage industries.  Kerr expects continued high growth as it takes advantage of new package conversion opportunities in the food and beverage industry, and capitalizes on several favorable trends in the pharmaceutical industry.  These include an aging population, new product introductions and increasing generic drug activity as $ 30 billion worth of drugs come off patent by the year 2005.