Williams Advanced Materials Inc. to Meet Increased Demand for Fab Services with New Facility in the Czech Republic
Buffalo, New York - June 6, 2007 - Williams Advanced Materials (WAM), a leading global materials and services company, announced today an expansion of its operations into Europe with the opening of a new precision cleaning and reconditioning services facility in the Czech Republic. The expansion represents another major step in WAM's global strategy to support physical vapor deposition (PVD) customers serving the semiconductor and other technology-based growth markets.
Williams Advanced Materials Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Brush Engineered Materials Inc.
The addition of the Czech Republic facility enables WAM to augment its existing physical vapor deposition materials business with significantly enhanced service capabilities and an extended geographic reach throughout Continental Europe.
OMC Scientific, a subsidiary of Williams Advanced Materials, is operating the new facility. It is located in the city of Louny, in the northwestern Czech region of Bohemia. OMC operates a similar facility in Limerick, Ireland.
The Louny site, which has been brought on line over the past few weeks, now provides a low cost, fully integrated solution for precision cleaning and reconditioning services for PVD customers including precious metal recovery, ultrasonic cleaning, surface treatment, final quality control and clean room packaging.
The new operation also offers customers enhanced parts tracking services, decoupled plasma source (DPS) etching, ion implantation parts cleaning and reconditioning, assembly and leak testing of ultra high vacuum (UHV) components. There is additional space at the site to accommodate manufacturing expansion in PVD services and other market opportunities.
Executive management of Brush Engineered Materials Inc. and Williams Advanced Materials Inc., officials of CzechInvest, employees and their family members, and other local dignitaries gathered at the new site today for its grand opening. In dedicating the new plant, Richard J. Hipple, Chairman, CEO and President of Brush Engineered Materials Inc., remarked, "We are excited to officially open the company's first investment in the Czech Republic and welcome its talented workforce to the WAM team and the Brush organization. This marks a milestone event in our efforts to provide premier service to our customers throughout the world." Mr. Hipple noted that international sales accounted for 48% of Brush Engineered Materials' total revenues in the first quarter of 2007 and 35% of sales for 2006. He added, "For Williams Advanced Materials, the completion of this project allows it to immediately offer existing and future customers a broader and highly complementary range of capabilities, and adds a new source of revenues and margin contribution."
Joining Mr. Hipple with remarks at the ceremony, Richard W. Sager, WAM President, said, "As market requirements continue to become more demanding, Williams Advanced Materials' capital investment in critical technology remains paramount to maintaining our global leadership position in the PVD thin film materials industry. We are grateful for the support of CzechInvest in helping to provide an environment for investment and its ongoing commitment to provide the assistance that will further our growth here as the plant becomes fully operational. For the local community and the surrounding region, we believe we will be an important source of pride and economic benefit. We are committed to being a good employer and neighbor."
The Czech Republic facility is the latest in a number of investments and acquisitions over the past few years to strengthen Williams' leadership position in global growth markets. In 2006, the company acquired CERAC, incorporated in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a leading domestic provider of specialty inorganic materials. In 2005, in addition to acquiring OMC Scientific, WAM purchased Thin Film Technology, Inc. of Buellton, California, a leader in the production of precision optical coatings, photo lithography, thin film hybrid circuits, and specialized thin film coatings and services. WAM is also in the process of opening a new PVD operations and services center near Shanghai, China.
Williams Advanced Materials Inc is headquartered in Buffalo, New York. The company manufactures precious, non-precious and specialty metal products at its facilities in New York, California, Europe, Ireland and Asia. Major markets for WAM's products include magnetic and optical data storage, wireless telecommunications, semiconductor and photonics.
Brush Engineered Materials Inc. (NYSE:BW) is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio. The company, through Williams Advanced Materials Inc. and other wholly owned subsidiaries, supplies worldwide markets with beryllium products, alloy products, electronic products, precious metal products, and engineered material systems.
