Mount Olive, North Carolina, December 14, 2001

IMPulse NC LLC, the leading North American supplier of traction power systems, has begun a $1.25 million dollar expansion to its main manufacturing facility. The project, which started in December 2001, is expected to be complete within six months.

The expansion will include 40,000 square feet of manufacturing space and 3,500 square feet of office space. A major piece of the expansion will include a 25 foot by 75 foot environmentally controlled paint booth.

Since the establishment of IMPulse NC in 1990, the company has acquired two additional facilities. IMPulse NC currently employs approximately 200 employees and expects to add 20 new positions once the expansion is completed. IMPulse NC also has a division in Milan, Italy, EMC traction, S.r.l., that employs 55 people.

"Our industry has moved more and more toward prefabricated designs, where we must provide our equipment in a factory built housing requiring much more factory space and a larger paint facility" stated Joe Reed, company President. "This addition will allow us to meet these requirements, as well as our continuing growth."

With the tremendous growth in the transit industry, this expansion will allow IMPulse NC to continue to be the predominant leader in the traction power industry, providing complete traction power systems that include substations, controls and overhead electrification hardware for streetcar, electric trolley bus, light rail and heavy rail applications.

IMPulse NC is a member of the Marmon Group of companies; an international association of autonomous manufacturing and service companies with collective sales of $7 billion.