Day & Zimmermann Elevates NPS Energy Services to Business Group Status.

PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 16, 1999--

Strong growth catapults business unit into big league

In its third major announcement in recent weeks, Day & Zimmermann, Inc., the privately held diversified professional services firm headquartered in Philadelphia, today said it was elevating NPS Energy Services to full business group status to capitalize on the business unit's recent stellar growth, thereby positioning it for further growth.

Earlier, Day & Zimmermann announced a merger agreement with The Mason Company, creating a $1.5 billion company that thrusts it into the forefront of the assembly and disarmament of nuclear and conventional weapons.

It also reported the appointment of new leadership and significant investment in technology at Day & Zimmermann International, Inc. (DZII), its engineering and construction business, clearing the way for aggressive growth. These moves are part of an ambitious plan to achieve strategic growth through investment in its core businesses.

The newly appointed Group President of NPS Energy Services is Joe Ucciferro, who led the business unit to record levels of performance, doubling revenues in the past four years.

"We have succeeded in carving out a leading position in the provision of maintenance and modification services to power generation plants for the utilities industry and have charted a course to achieve the same leadership position in the process and industrial facilities business," says Ucciferro.

"Elevating our status to a full-fledged business group is a tangible endorsement of Day & Zimmermann's commitment to plant maintenance and modifications as a core business. It positions us to continue to build on our leadership role as the industry tracks down the road of deregulation."

NPS Energy Services operates nationally and is commissioned by both fossil and nuclear power generators. "This is an intensely competitive business in which we are successful because of our recognized commitment and passion for living our core values," Ucciferro says.

"These include having a world class safety record, excellent operations performance and, as a union contractor, enjoying great relationships with our unions which enables us to identify and employ the best people for each individual contract."

"What makes our success more meaningful is that it is being achieved in a market which is shrinking as deregulatory forces put heightened financial constraints on capital and expense projects. Despite this we currently provide services to plants generating more kilowatts than any of our competitors do."

Ucciferro adds that the success of NPS Energy Services can also be attributed to the flexibility it applies to each project. "Increasingly this is becoming a pay-for-performance business which is cyclically geared to the spring and fall time frames and where incentives hinge on safety, cost and schedule performance," he says. "We have developed our strengths to focus on these very trends."

Ucciferro, who has a Ph.D. in structural engineering, joined Day & Zimmermann five years ago after 21 years in management on design engineering projects.

"I enjoy dealing with people and the problems and challenges associated with this business. Our employee satisfaction is high - and management turnover has been negligible. For me this is a very personal and key reason for our success; you cannot achieve total customer satisfaction without the very high level of employee satisfaction we enjoy."

Day & Zimmermann (www.dayzim.com), founded in 1901 as a two-person engineering partnership, has become one of the world's largest and most successful privately owned businesses, ranking 175th in last year's Forbes magazine listing of the top 500 private companies.

As winner of the MassMutual Insurance Company's 1998 National Family Business of the Year Award in the large business category, "Day & Zimmermann served as a model for the nation's 12 million family businesses," according to Mary Lou Doyle, of the Flanagan Financial group, the firm that nominated the company for the award.

With the recent transition to the third generation of family ownership, under the leadership of new CEO Hal Yoh, the company is refocusing on and reinvesting in its core businesses.

Day & Zimmermann performs through five decentralized market-focused operating groups:

-- Day & Zimmermann International, Inc. - provides engineering, procurement and construction, construction management, project and program management and ancillary services to the specialty chemical, fibers, pharmaceutical, micro-electronics, food and beverage and other industries.

-- Day & Zimmermann LLC - provides a range of services including security and safeguards, travel services and a full spectrum of base, facility and maritime operations and services for the U.S. Departments of Energy and Defense and other federal agencies, public utilities and Fortune 500 companies.

-- H. L. Yoh Group - provides full service, contract technical staffing and administrative management solutions to clients throughout the U.S., with a focus on information technology, engineering, research and development, quality control, quality assurance, regulatory and clinical research personnel.

-- NPS Energy Services, Inc. - provides maintenance, plant betterment and decommissioning services to the power, process and other industries.

-- Government Systems Group - manufactures, stores and demilitarizes ammunition products and provides related services to the U.S. Departments of Energy and Defense and to U.S.-approved foreign governments, having loaded the payload modules for the Tomahawk Cruise Missile and now assembling the latest highly accurate "smart" weapon designed for use against tanks and other armored vehicles.