Date of issue: 24th July 2006

DIRECTORS TAKE FULL OWNERSHIP OF FILTERMIST

Filtermist International enlisted the support of Birmingham chartered accountants Clement Keys to buy out a long-standing investor and will now look to develop its next generation of products and continue to expand into Europe, South East Asia, the Far East and the Americas.

Barclays Private Equity acquired a share in the Bridgnorth-based company in 1997. This investment enabled directors Mike Stansfield, Ann Gabriel and Randall Taft to buy out the original owners, and in the intervening years, Filtermist International has grown to a level of funding which allowed the scheduled exit of Barclays Private Equity.

Filtermist International was founded in 1969 and has helped to improve health and safety in the machine shop environment by manufacturing the World's leading filter of oil mist and airborne contaminants from industrial machine tools, which is marketed through a worldwide network of 35 distributors. Today, Filtermist's range also includes extraction equipment, which deals effectively with dust, smoke and fumes. In addition, the company has developed a specialism in filtration materials used in air and fluid cleaning applications and a separate division marketing coolant control solutions.

Ross Cocker has been operating in a business advisory capacity to Filtermist International for the past ten years and acted as lead adviser on the buy out. Clement Keys also takes charge of the company's annual accounts and auditing.

"I've enjoyed a long term relationship with Filtermist International from the days of the original MBO to this latest stage of succession and we are now planning for five years hence," he says.

"A company's needs change as it goes through different phases of development and Filtermist International, which is on a sound footing to invest in product development and explore new market opportunities, proves the benefit of long term strategic planning."