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Lake Success,
New York, April 26, 2001…Park
Electrochemical Corp. (NYSE
- PKE) announced that it has signed an agreement with Dynamic
Details Incorporated relating to the purchase by Dynamic Details,
a wholly owned subsidiary of DDi Corp. (NASDAQ-DDIC), of the assets
and business of Nelco Technology, Inc. ("NTI"), a wholly owned subsidiary
of Park.
NTI is a manufacturer
of semi-finished printed wiring boards, commonly known as mass lamination,
located in Tempe, Arizona. For the fiscal year ended February 25,
2001, NTI had net sales of approximately $39 million of mass lamination
product. Terms of the transaction are not being disclosed at this
time. However, Park expects to record a charge of approximately
$15 million in its 2002 fiscal year first quarter ended May 27,
2001 in connection with the sale of the assets and business of NTI
and the closure of a related support facility to NTI also located
in Tempe, Arizona. (The related support facility is referred to
internally at Park as NAZ.) The transaction is expected to close
on April 27, 2001. Park Electrochemical Corp. will retain all rights
to the Nelco name.
Brian Shore,
Park's President and CEO, commented, "This brings to a conclusion
the long and painful saga our NTI business has endured since Delco
Electronics closed their circuit board manufacturing plant and terminated
NTI's supply agreement with them. Through extremely difficult and
dark days, our employees never gave up on this business. Mary Wathen
and her team did an absolutely wonderful job in turning this severely
damaged business around and restoring some basic dignity to a business
which had been dealt a nearly fatal blow as the result of Delco's
termination of this supply agreement. I only wish we could have
saved the jobs of all of the employees at NTI and NAZ, but we did
our best, and I am gratified that we have been able to save the
jobs of at least a portion of our NTI employees. I am also very
pleased that DDi will be taking over our NTI business, as I have
the highest regard for the DDi business and its management. I believe
our NTI employees will be in good hands in the future. (By the way,
we are very excited that DDi has recently become one of our key
strategic global customers.)"
Brian Shore
concluded, "I would like to personally thank every one of our NTI
employees for persevering under incredibly difficult circumstances
and for creating a good, solid business out of the ashes left behind
after Delco's termination of the supply agreement. I would also
like to wish all of our NTI and NAZ employees past and present good
luck and Godspeed. They certainly deserve it!"
Certain portions
of this press release may be deemed to constitute forward looking
statements that are subject to various factors which could cause
actual results to differ materially from Park's expectations. Such
factors include, but are not limited to, general conditions in the
electronics industry, Park's competitive position, the status of
Park's relationships with its customers, economic conditions in
international markets, the cost and availability of utilities, and
the various factors set forth under the caption "Factors That May
Affect Future Results" after Item 7 of Park's Annual Report on Form
10-K for the fiscal year ended February 27, 2000.
Park Electrochemical
Corp. is a leading designer and producer of advanced electronic
materials used to fabricate complex multilayer printed circuit boards
and interconnection systems. Park specializes in advanced materials
for high layer count circuit boards and high-speed digital broadband
telecommunications, internet and networking applications. Park's
electronic materials business operates through fully integrated
business units in Asia, Europe and North America. The Company's
major manufacturing facilities are located in Singapore, England,
France, Germany, New York, Arizona and California. Park's electronic
materials business operates under the "Nelco" name.
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