Alltech International Holdings, Inc. Acquires Public Status Via Merger.

Business Editors

DEERFIELD, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 8, 2003

Alltech International Holdings, Inc. ("AIH") announced today that it merged with U.S. Consolidated Industries, Inc., Flossmoor, Illinois, an inactive public company.

The merger was effective Jan. 1, 2003, with 8,904,147 shares issued and outstanding.

Rick Kurtz, president and COO, said: "We believe our new public posture will enhance our ability to build our global business. Our goal is to become a reporting company to the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") as soon as possible, and, when we meet the listing requirements, to make application for trading on the Nasdaq system."

AIH's wholly owned subsidiary, Alltech Associates, Inc. ("Alltech"), is a leading supplier of chromatography products with worldwide sales for the past year of approximately $42 million. Chromatography encompasses a number of processes where the composition of chemical mixtures and samples may be qualitatively and quantitatively determined.

Alltech manufactures and distributes an extensive range of consumables (columns, sample preparation tools, accessories) and instrumentation for the fields of high pressure liquid chromatography ("HPLC"), gas chromatography ("GC"), ion chromatography ("IC"), thin layer chromatography ("TLC"), solid phase extraction ("SPE") and sample handling. Alltech has two United States locations and branch, subsidiary or joint venture sales offices in 12 countries throughout the world. In addition, Alltech has approximately 60 distributors located throughout the world.

In 2002, Alltech completed the second year of an agreement with Fisher Scientific (NYSE:FSH), Hampton, New Hampshire, making Fisher the exclusive national distributor of Alltech's chromatography consumables for university, research and development, analytical and laboratory markets. The relationship gives Fisher a world-class chromatography product offering and gives Alltech access to customers that have committed to Fisher's supply-chain solutions. Both companies incorporate the latest e-commerce technology in their customer interface. The agreement provides Fisher Scientific with rights to co-market Alltech's product line in the United States and Puerto Rico.

Alltech's World Wide Web site is: www.alltechweb.com. AIH's stock is not currently traded.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements made in this news release that relate to future plans, events or performances are forward-looking statements. Any statements containing words such as "believes," "should," "anticipates," "plans," or "expects," as well as other statements, are forward-looking, and those statements involve risks and uncertainties outside of the control of Alltech and are based on current expectations. Consequently, actual results could differ materially from the expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements.