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Crown North America Lands Police Car Pact with Ford

27 July 2000

Announces Plans for New Ontario Conversion Plant

    WOOSTER, Ohio - Crown North America, a leading supplier of automotive 
conversion services and telecommunications enclosures, today announced that 
it will open a new plant in St. Thomas, Ontario, to provide Ford Motor Co. 
with a new generation of police car conversions designed to get officers 
on the road faster.

    Crown was recently selected by Ford to add an innovative set of wiring,
storage and mounting systems to Ford Crown Victoria models produced in Ontario
for sale through Ford dealers across the United States.

    The contract begins with the 2001 model year.

    Crown will modify the cars at its fully equipped plant in Mississauga,
Ontario, and open the new plant in St. Thomas during the third quarter.  Crown
estimates it will staff the plant with 50 or more people.

    "This contract reflects Crown's commitment to help our customers develop
effective solutions for their customers," said Michael Hooper, president and
chief executive officer at Crown North America.  "Our new plant is part of
Crown's proximity strategy, which maximizes the value we offer our customers
by locating our facilities right next to theirs.   We are eager to work with
Ford to help U.S. police departments secure vehicles that are closer to
service-ready."

    Robert Williams, government sales manager for Ford's North
American Fleet Operations, said Crown will be the exclusive supplier of the
new conversions.

    "Crown helped us develop a package that far exceeds what is available
today for U.S. police departments," Williams said.  "By getting the basic
wiring, mounting and storage units in place on Crown's assembly line, we will
save a lot of installation time for local and state governments and help them
get their police vehicles into service faster.  We also expect our new
visibility package, featuring strobe lights, to attract attention."

    Ford estimates it will build between 10,000 and 12,000 of the police cars
in the 2001 model year.  Ford and Crown will be displaying the new police
vehicle at the National Association of Fleet Administrators' Law Enforcement
conference, scheduled for August 6-7 in Palm Springs, Calif.

    Andy Maynard, marketing manager for Crown North America, said the new
conversion package addresses the delay that is often associated with getting
police cars ready for the road.

    "Cars for police officers typically get shipped from the factory to a
converter, and then to a host of other suppliers that do one or two things at
a time to turn it into a police car," Maynard observed.  "In many cases,
there's duplicate dismantling of the car and a lot of time-consuming headaches
and waiting.  By the time the car is in use, the warranty clock has ticked off
anywhere from four weeks to six months.

    "With this package from Ford and Crown, we take care of a lot of the
general issues up front, and deliver the vehicle with much of the work already
done," Maynard added. "We make it easier for the police to complete the
incremental steps that vary by police department.  We're shortening their
wait, and we're doing it with the efficiency and quality of an assembly line."

    Crown North America is a leading supplier of ladder racks, interior
partitions, utility carriers and other vehicle upfitting systems, as well as
metal enclosures used to protect telecommunications and electrical switches
and controls.  Founded in 1946, Crown employs more than 600 people, with
facilities in Wooster and Lorain, Ohio; Plano, TX; Thomaston, GA; St. Charles,
MO; Baltimore, MD; Warren, MI; and Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.