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GenTek Announces Major Telecom Expansion at its Sidney, Neb. Facility

20 October 2000

GenTek Announces Major Telecom Expansion at its Sidney, Neb. Facility

              Strategy Addresses Unprecedented Market Demand for
                        Copper and Fiber Optic Cabling

    SIDNEY, Neb., Oct. 20 GenTek Inc. and Krone,
GenTek's principal telecommunications subsidiary, announced yesterday a $40
million expansion plan for their copper and fiber optic cable manufacturing
facilities in Sidney, Neb. and North Bennington, Vt. The companies project
this investment will enable these facilities to generate some $300 million in
annual revenue by 2003, up from about $70 million in 1999. Much of this growth
is attributable to Krone's TrueNet(TM) structured cabling system, the only
advanced local area network (LAN) solution on the market today that maximizes
data throughput, enabling a network to deliver the bandwidth for which it was
designed.
    "The expansion is essential to Krone's growth strategy and substantiates
our efforts to build a leading network architecture business," said Paul M.
Montrone, chairman of GenTek. "We were pleased to select Sidney as one of the
expansion sites because of the loyalty and strong work ethic of our Nebraskan
employees. The quality of the local workforce reflects the state's success in
developing an education system that recognizes both the needs of business and
industry and the value of preparing students for 21st century work
environments. GenTek applauds the state of Nebraska for its commitment to the
development of a highly skilled workforce and for implementing public policy
that has fostered a business-friendly climate."
    GenTek's facility in Sidney, Neb., which primarily produces products for
telecommunications service providers and enterprise local- and wide-area
networks, will add capacity devoted primarily to advanced data cables to
support TrueNet and other broadband applications.
    Phase one of the expansion will be completed in the fourth quarter, with
final build-out scheduled for the first quarter of 2001.