Ecolab Launches Industry's First Integrated Cleaning System for Conveyor Car Wash Market

    ST. PAUL, Minn.--Sept. 4, 2002--Ecolab Inc. recently introduced Harmony(TM), an innovative, flexible new cleaning system for conveyor car washes. The Harmony product family offers the most comprehensive front-to-back solutions for the market, with 11 products designed to work together for maximum effectiveness and superior results.
    "The Harmony product line is the first-ever complete system of its kind for the conveyor car wash industry," said John Trotter, vice president and general manager of Ecolab's Vehicle Care Division. "This comprehensive offering is an outcome of Ecolab's ongoing commitment to research and development of new technologies for the industry."
    Harmony products include presoaks, surfactant boosts, polishes and a drying agent for advanced start-to-finish cleaning.
    "With traditional car wash products, some interference can occur between the different products, diminishing the overall effectiveness of the cleaning process. But Harmony products were designed to work together," said John Mark Reimann, the Harmony product line manager for the Vehicle Care Division. "We eliminated any interference, and the overall effect is cleaner, shinier, drier cars."
    Better performance equals labor savings for users of the Harmony system. Car wash operators save on labor costs because cars require less manual prepping, wipe-downs and rewashes.
    Harmony also features the conveyor car wash industry's first solid alkaline presoak. The solid presoak technology is easier to handle and safer for car wash employees than conventional cleaners.
    Patented technology also provides safer, more effective wheel cleaning, a key concern in the car wash industry.
    "The wheel cleaning is especially exciting because it's an unmet need in the market," said Pam Cooper, Ecolab Vehicle Care's director of marketing. "Our patented, corrosion-inhibition technology, combined with a dispensing system that boasts built-in safety mechanisms, provides excellent cleaning while protecting against flashing of wheels."
    With worldwide sales exceeding $3 billion, Ecolab is the leading global developer and marketer of premium cleaning, sanitizing, pest elimination, maintenance and repair products and services for the hospitality, institutional and industrial markets. Ecolab shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange and the Pacific Exchange under the symbol ECL.
    Ecolab news releases and other investor information are available on the Internet at www.ecolab.com and by telephone at 1-800-FACT-ECL.