PITMAN, NJ (June 9, 2003)—K-Tron International, Inc. (NASDAQ-KTII) is a publicly traded company with headquarters in Pitman, New Jersey. K-Tron and its subsidiaries design, produce, market and service material handling equipment and systems for a wide variety of industrial markets.  The Company has manufacturing facilities in the United States, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Canada, and its equipment is sold throughout the world. While K-Tron was incorporated in 1964, its roots go back over 125 years.  The Swiss subsidiary of K-Tron, originally called the Jacob Soder Company, was founded in 1900 in Niederlenz, Switzerland, and the Company’s recently acquired Penn Crusher and Jeffrey subsidiaries trace their roots to 1905 and 1877, respectively.

K-Tron has been for many years the global leader in the gravimetric feeder market, producing feeders and related controls and equipment for the plastics, food, pet food, chemical, pharmaceutical and other process industries.  K-Tron Soder feeders control the flow of materials into a process that then transforms those materials into an end product.  In the plastics industry, K-Tron has been a leading supplier of feeding solutions for resin production, compounding and other demanding extrusion processes.  Through the acquisition of Hurricane Pneumatic Conveying Inc. in Canada in 1997, K-Tron entered the business of producing, marketing and servicing high-performance pneumatic conveying systems and related equipment, for both feeder refill applications and stand-alone vacuum conveying applications in related processes.

The marketing and sale of K-Tron Soder feeders and Hurricane vacuum conveying systems are now conducted through the K-Tron Feeder Group.  The K-Tron Feeder Group sells through manufacturers’ reps in North America, Latin America, Asia and much of Europe, with direct sales and service offices in the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Singapore and a service office in Shanghai, China.  Feeders are manufactured by K-Tron America in Pitman, New Jersey and K-Tron Switzerland in Niederlenz, Switzerland. A recent independent market research study by Frost & Sullivan named K-Tron as the market leader in continuous weigh feeding in the United States.  A similar study named K-Tron as the market leader in Europe several years ago.  The K-Tron Feeder Group, through its Systems Engineering Division, can also supply complete turnkey material handling systems.

K-Tron has earned industry recognition for its proprietary digital weighing technology. Using the K-Tron Smart Force Transducer (SFT) weighing technology in combination with the K-Tron Smart Connex™ feeder control platform, K-Tron Soder K2Modular feeders have demonstrated excellent performance, accuracy and return on investment in demanding industry applications. The K-Tron Electronics division of K-Tron America designs, manufactures and assembles electronic circuit boards and controls for K-Tron as well as outside customers.

  
K-Tron’s, pneumatic conveying business was strengthened by the acquisitions of Colormax Limited in 2000 and Pneumatic Conveying Systems Limited in 2001, both in the United Kingdom. These two brands are now organized within K-Tron as the Pneumatic Conveying Group and represent the Company’s second business line. 

Colormax, headquartered in Telford, England, has served the British plastics industry since 1973 as a key supplier of feeders, blenders, vacuum conveying and other auxiliary equipment to injection/ blow/ rotational molding applications as well as extrusion processes.  Since its acquisition by K-Tron, Colormax has expanded into other geographic markets, including the United States.  While Colormax and the K-Tron Feeder Group both serve the plastics industry, they generally serve different applications and use separate distribution channels.  Where possible, common technology and resources are shared between the groups.

Pneumatic Conveying Systems Limited (PCS), headquartered in Stockport, England, was established in 1990, and provides pneumatic conveying systems to the food, pharmaceutical and chemical industries, specializing in difficult to handle powders.  While PCS systems may occasionally include weighing or feeding equipment, the focus is on stand-alone pneumatic conveying systems, conveying anything from sugar to golf balls.

In early January 2003, K-Tron International acquired Pennsylvania Crusher Corporation and its wholly owned subsidiary, Jeffrey Specialty Equipment Corporation.  Pennsylvania Crusher is the leading U.S. manufacturer of size reduction equipment sold to electric utility companies to crush coal for use in coal-fired power generation plants.  Jeffrey is a leading U.S. manufacturer of hammermills and other size reduction equipment for use primarily by companies in the pulp and paper industries to crush wood for the production of paper.  The size reduction and other related equipment manufactured by Pennsylvania Crusher and Jeffrey form K-Tron’s third business line.