Foster Returns Home to Build Its State-of-the-Art Facility 

Dayville, CT (August, 2002) - Foster Corporation's recent commitment to build a state-of-the-art facility in Putnam, CT demonstrates an ongoing investment strategy for the global leader in performance polymer solutions for the medical industry. The company's purchase of 4.7 acres with plans for a Putnam facility twice as large the current location in Dayville, also represents a return home to where the company began in 1989.

Foster provides comprehensive polymer compound solutions for medical devices and other leading technology applications. These compounds incorporate specialized additives into performance polymers to enhance material characteristics. The results are polymer solutions with improved rigidity, lubricity, x-ray opacity, and other benefits for specialized applications. Applications in the medical industry, for example, include catheters and balloons used in cardiology.

In the early 1990's the company moved from Putnam to Dayville, CT and built a 20,000 square foot manufacturing facility and global headquarters to meet ever increasing demands for their unique solutions. In the late 1990's the company built a west coast manufacturing facility in Las Vegas, NV to provide rapid response to a large number of medical device companies in the region.

The company now intends to move its east coast facility to the Putnam location. This new 40,000 square foot facility will satisfy current demand which requires more manufacturing, storage and office space than available at the existing facility. It will also allow the company to enhance its services to customers with a new clean medical manufacturing environment.

According to Foster president Larry Acquarulo, "The medical industry is exciting and ever changing. Our 14 years of dynamic growth serving medical device companies has reinforced our beliefs in continual reinvestment and improvement as a requirement for successful leadership. This expanded east coast facility represents an important investment in our history. We are also enthusiastic about our opportunity for renewed growth in the town where we began."

Foster Corporation is a global market leader in design, development and delivery of specialty thermoplastic solutions for medical, electronic and other niche industrial markets. The company also provides a broad range of material, process and design contract engineering services for these target markets. For more information, please call 860.774.3964.


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:Dan Lazas
610.458.2038