Mannheim (Germany), September 18,2003 – The initiative for the merger came so to speak from the customers. These had expressed a corresponding wish within the framework of a broadly-based customer opinion survey.

The merger has already been preceded by amalgamating the organisations of the sales and distribution activities for thermoplastic products. This means that only very little will change for the employees at both sites. The site in Haren will continue to produce polyolefins (PE/PP), PVDF and composite materials (glass-fibre reinforced plastics and laminated densified wood) while PVC panels will still be manufactured at the Troisdorf site.

After the merger has been accomplished, the new company will be able to offer its customers the whole product spectrum as well as all services truly from a single source.

Ludger Bartels, chairman of the management board in Haren says with regard to the new name of the company: "We have decided in favour of the English-language name of the company "Röchling Engineering Plastics KG", because this best expresses our international orientation and our global marketing strategy."

The Managing Director of Röchling Trovidur KG, Franz Lübbers, who will in future run the new business division Trovidur, is convinced of the correctness of amalgamating the activities: "The unification of the two biggest companies in the Group will increase the satisfaction of our customers further and will help to consolidate our leading market position."

The Röchling Haren Group with 22 sites world-wide is a leading international manufacturer of semi-finished products and machined finished components made of thermoplastics and composite materials for practically all sectors of the capital goods industry. Group sales in 2002 amounted to 225 million Euro, some 80 per cent of this figure being achieved outside Germany.

New Logo: Röchling Haren KG and Röchling Trovidur KG become Röchling Engineering Plastics KG

Röchling Haren KG
Management Ludger Bartels (Chairman)
Dr. Joachim Brunswicker
Röchlingstr. 1
D-49733 Haren/Germany
Phone.: +49 (0) 0 59 34/701-0

Röchling Trovidur KG
Management
Franz Lübbers
P.O. Box 1661
D-53826 Troisdorf/Germany
Phone: +49 (0) 22 41/48 20-0