Berry Plastics Corp., owner of Packerware Corp. in Lawrence, says it is “exploring strategic alternatives” that could include selling the company or taking it public, all with the intent of maximizing shareholder value for its owners.

Berry has been exploring the possibilities for at least several weeks and has yet to make any decisions through the process, the company said.

“The company offers no assurance that any transaction will occur or, if one is undertaken, its terms or timing,” the company said, in a statement. “The company does not expect to publicly disclose developments with respect to the exploration of strategic alternatives.”

Earlier this year, Berry received approval from the Lawrence City Commission for a 10-year, 90 percent abatement on property taxes for a planned $118 million expansion of its Packerware plant in Lawrence. The project calls for adding 78 jobs at the plant during its first three years, a number that would be expected to grow to 154 by the end of year five.

Nothing has changed since commissioners approved the project in January, said Robert Weilminster, Berry’s vice president for corporate development.

“The Lawrence project is moving ahead, just as it has been outlined,” Weilminster said Tuesday.

The project calls for upgrading the plant’s technology so that Packerware could use less plastic in its manufacturing of drink cups, kitchenware, garden tools and other products.

Berry Plastics Corp., owner of Packerware Corp., is considering various options to maximize shareholder value. Among the options are a possible sale or taking the company public. Packerware employs about 450 workers at this 470,000-square foot plant at 2330 Packer Road in Lawrence.

The plant produced $79.4 million worth of products in 2004.

The company plans to start hiring 43 employees for the project no later than the third quarter of this year, and to have a new line of cups running by the end of the year.

Berry, based in Evansville, Ind., is a manufacturer of molded plastic products. It is a portfolio company of Goldman Sachs Capital Partners and JP Morgan Partners, part of an investment group known as BPC Holding Corp.

In its statement, Berry said it had retained Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan as its financial advisers to assist in exploring strategic alternatives.

Earl Kemper, principal for Plastics Research Associates, an independent market research firm in Houston, said that such alternatives could include selling portions of the company, or selling to a single buyer who then might consider splitting the company.

Kemper said he could not think of a U.S. plastics company that would be a likely candidate for buying Berry with the intent of maintaining all of its holdings.

“It may be worth more broken apart than put together,” said Kemper, who declined to speculate on a possible sales price.

Taking the company public might make more sense, he said, given that the overall plastics market was growing slightly faster than the overall economy.