Hexagon Press Release - September 14, 2006 - Hexagon Metrology Opens New North American Headquarters in Rhode Island
P R E S S R E L E A S E Press contact: Belinda Jones, HiTech Marketing, 860-399-1147, belinda.jones@hitechmarketing.com Link to Press Release: http://hexagonmetrology.us/content/view/19/20 <http://hexagonmetrology.us/content/view/19/20/> Hexagon Metrology Opens New North American Headquarters in Rhode Island North Kingstown, RI - September 14, 2006 - Hexagon Metrology Inc. officially opened its new North American headquarters today in North Kingstown, Rhode Island. Over fifty special guests from state and local governments, and Hexagon's worldwide operations, were on hand for the Grand Opening celebration. Ola Rollén, President and CEO of Hexagon AB, Governor Don Carcieri of Rhode Island, Saul Kaplan, Executive Director of the Rhode Island Economic Development Commission, and Bill Gruber, President of Hexagon Metrology, Inc., presided over a ribbon cutting ceremony to commission the 126,000 square foot facility. The new building is located at 250 Circuit Drive in the high-tech Quonset Business Park. This multi-purpose, state-of-the art facility is the nationwide showcase for Hexagon Metrology's products and technology, with two expansive demonstration rooms and two training classrooms, which conduct more than 80 software training classes each year. Hexagon Metrology's North American management and financial operations reside at this new location. The 58,000-sq. ft. manufacturing complex will be used to produce Brown & Sharpe brand Coordinate Measurement Machines (CMMs), and will serve as Hexagon's worldwide manufacturing location for air bearings, a key component in CMMs. "This grand opening is the culmination of a long process that began more than three years ago," commented William Gruber, President of Hexagon Metrology, Inc. "I can truly say that it has been worth the wait. This facility has exceeded our expectations for functionality, energy efficiency, and manufacturing flow. We expect to double our production capacity in this location with just a third the manufacturing space of our prior factory." The Hexagon Group Serves Global Manufacturing Markets through Diverse Business Units Hexagon AB (www.hexagon.se <http://www.hexagon.se/>) is a publicly-trade company in Sweden with annual sales of over $1.7 billion. Hexagon has over 7,000 employees in 30 countries, and is divided into three distinct business groups: Hexagon Measurement Technologies, Hexagon Polymers, and Hexagon Engineering. Hexagon Polymers is a specialist manufacturer of gaskets, rubber and plastic wheels for applications such as forklifts, and semi-finished rubber compounds. Hexagon Engineering manufactures specialty metals and components, primarily for the automotive industry. Hexagon Metrology (www.hexagonmetrology.com <http://www.hexagonmetrology.com/>) is a subsidiary of Hexagon Measurement Technologies, which serves dual segments of the measurement and inspection marketplace. First, Hexagon Metrology serves the global industrial metrology market with an unrivaled portfolio of leading brands including Brown & Sharpe, CE Johansson, DEA, Leitz, Leica Geosystems, ROMER, PC-DMIS, Sheffield Measurement and TESA. Hexagon brand-name products provide extremely precise dimensional verification (to ten-thousandths of an inch) and quality control solutions to customers in diverse manufacturing industries such as aerospace, automotive, appliance, medical, machinery and many others. Hexagon Metrology is the largest provider of dimensional metrology solutions worldwide. The second metrology market served by Hexagon Measurement Technologies is composed of Leica Geosystems' surveying, GPS and geomapping product lines for accurate 1D to 3D measurement of construction, mining and terrain. Leica Geosystems' advanced mapping technologies underlie Google Earth. Hexagon is aggressively pursuing growth in the machine automation segment, which employs a variety of laser and GPS sensors to earthmoving, paving, mining, farming and other heavy equipment. This technology improves both maneuvering and positional accuracy for all kinds of large scale projects. Hexagon has recently purchased two machine automation companies to complement the Leica Geosystems' portfolio. The acquisition of Microfyn (Denmark) announced last Friday, and the purchase of Scanlaser (Norway) in May 2006, are examples of Hexagon's dynamic growth intentions in machine automation. About Hexagon Metrology Hexagon Metrology serves the high precision measurement and inspection needs of Worldwide manufacturers with its extensive line of metrology hardware, software, accessories, and customer services. The company's name-brand portfolio of quality assurance products include Brown & Sharpe, Leica Geosystems, ROMER, Sheffield, PC-DMIS, DEA, Leitz, and TESA. Hexagon Metrology has an unrivaled installed base of more than 1.5 million handheld, stationary and portable measurement devices, and over 25,000 seats of PC-DMIS metrology software. The company is a subsidiary of Hexagon Measurement Technologies, a business unit of Hexagon AB (Nacka Strand, Sweden), a publicly-traded company (Stockholmsborsen: HEXA B). The Hexagon group consists of nearly 7,800 employees located in 30 countries. Call 1-800-426-1066 or visit www.hexagonmetrology.us for more information about Hexagon Metrology North America and its trusted brands.