Iowa Soy Lubricant Manufacturer Relocates - Continues Success After Destructive Blaze


(Cedar Falls, Iowa) Environmental Lubricants Manufacturing, Inc. (ELM) has been relocated to a facility in the Cedar Falls, Iowa Industrial Park. It's the latest move in ELM's recovery from a devastating fire this past March which tore through its production facility in Plainfield, Iowa. "The company was able to maintain its customers and provide products by out-sourcing its grease blending operations" said Alan Burgess, ELM's Technical Manager. "But, we were blending our liquid lubricants in a temporary location that did not have adequate heat and resources," he said. According to Burgess, the new facility is more centrally located and will be used to blend the company's large array of bio-based lubricants and specialty products.

Lou Honary, Chairman of ELM, said, "The new location changes the environment from a post-fire temporary location to a more stable production facility". This provides more stability for our employees and the production remains close to resources of the University of Northern Iowa NABL Center to access fee-based testing services available for quality assurance and product development." ELM plans to continue to contract manufacturing of its grease products until a decision is made on expanding the manufacturing resources.

According to Dennis Clark, ELM investor and board liaison, ELM still has its storage facilities in two tank farms on its original facility in Plainfield, Iowa. "We will continue to use the storage facility which has access to rail transport; but use tankers to transport base oil materials to our new Cedar Falls location," said Clark. The tank farms escaped the fire and provide more than six million pounds of storage along with rail siding.

Environmental Lubricants Manufacturing, Inc, (ELM) was established in 2000 as the first exclusively biobased lubricants and grease manufacturing company in the United States. The company markets more than 40 bio-based (primarily soy based) lubricants and greases under trade names such as SoyTrak rail curve grease, SoyEasy metalworking line of products, and SoyLube brand retail products. ELM was ranked at number 470 this year on Inc. Magazine's 500 fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. list. The company was formed in 2000 to commercialize more than 40 bio-based lubricants and greases created at the University of Northern Iowa's National Ag-Based Lubricants (NABL) Center. For more information, go to www.elmusa.com.

Contact: Gene Tripp - Sales Manager, Environmental Lubricants Manufacturing, Inc. (ELM) 319 277-9075

Alan Burgess - Technical Manager, Environmental Lubricants Manufacturing, Inc. (ELM) 319-277-9075

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