PARK ELECTROCHEMICAL CORP. ANNOUNCES SELECTION OF NEWTON, KANSAS AS SITE FOR NEW ADVANCED COMPOSITE MATERIALS FACILITY
Melville, New York, August 14, 2007…..Park Electrochemical Corp. (NYSE – PKE) announced that it has selected the Newton City-County Airport in Newton, Kansas as the site for its new Advanced Composite Materials development and manufacturing facility for aircraft structures. The facility, which the Company plans to complete by the end of the Company’s next fiscal year, will be approximately 50,000 square feet, and will contain manufacturing, laboratory and office space. The Company plans to spend approximately $15 million on the facility and equipment. Newton, Kansas, is located approximately 20 miles north of Wichita, Kansas and is approximately a 20 minute drive from central Wichita. Wichita, Kansas is home to a number of major General Aviation aircraft manufacturers, and the Company is situating its new facility in the greater Wichita area in order to be in the position to work closely with, and to more effectively support, the Wichita aircraft manufacturing community.
Brian Shore, Park’s President and CEO, said, “This is a very exciting day for Park. We are very much looking forward to working closely with, and supporting to the best of our ability, the general aviation aircraft manufacturers located in the Wichita area, as well as those located elsewhere. Our new Newton facility, along with our new Pioneer Plant under construction in Singapore, forms part of our global strategy relating to developing and supplying advanced composite materials for aircraft structures.”
Mr. Shore concluded, “We are very pleased to be locating our new facility in the wonderful community of Newton, Kansas. It is very fitting that our new facility will be situated right off of Taxiway Echo at the Newton City-County Airport, one of America’s truly beautiful General Aviation airports.”
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 and aerospace industries, Park’s competitive position, the status of Park’s relationships with its customers, economic conditions in international markets, the cost and availability of raw materials and utilities, and the various factors set forth in Item 1A “Risk Factors” and 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 25, 2007.
Park Electrochemical Corp. is a global advanced materials company which develops and manufactures high-technology digital and RF/microwave printed circuit materials (the Nelco® product line) and advanced composite materials (the Nelcote™ product line) principally for the telecommunications and internet infrastructure, high-end computing and aerospace markets. Park focuses on the general aviation aircraft segment of the aerospace market. Park’s core capabilities are in the areas of polymer chemistry formulation and coating technology. The Company’s manufacturing facilities are located in Singapore, China, France, Connecticut, New York, Arizona and California.