GE Plastics, GLS Corporation Announce Joint Development Agreement.

Business/Technology Editors

PITTSFIELD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 25, 2002

Companies Will Develop, Market, and Distribute Thermoplastic Customer

Solutions using New Softfx(TM) VISUALfx(TM) Material

GE Plastics, a division of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), headquartered here, and GLS Corporation, headquartered in McHenry, IL announced today a joint development agreement in which the companies will collaborate on complimentary grades of engineering thermoplastics and elastomers to provide new and exciting solutions to customers in a wide variety of industry segments.

Included in the agreement is an arrangement in which GE Plastics' commercial organization, GE Polymerland, will be the exclusive distributor of the products jointly developed by the two companies. The new products will ultimately be available on www.gepolymerland.com, the industry's leading e-commerce portal.

The development effort will focus on developing combinations of GLS specialty elastomers molded over GE Plastics' substrates to provide unique, value-added materials. The companies intend to market these product combinations under the "Softfx" brand name to differentiate the new products that GE Plastics and GLS develop under this agreement. As the name implies, Softfx products will provide a soft, tactile feel on areas where consumers desire a good grip on the product. Softfx products will include an engineering thermoplastic substrate such as LEXAN(R) polycarbonate, CYCOLOY(R) PC/ABS alloy, or CYCOLAC(R) ABS to provide a "hard-soft" system that provides lightweight, durable, and visually appealing solutions to products in industries such as power tools, appliances, medical equipment, personal care, sporting goods, automotive, telecommunications, and other portable electronics where `gripability' is important as well.

"We are very excited to be working with GE Plastics to develop new TPE solutions for our customers," said Walt Ripple, Director of Marketing for GLS. "This arrangement is going to help us to provide optimized "hard-soft" systems that will help reduce our customer's product development cycle--and get their products to market quicker."

"The products we develop will help our customers to differentiate themselves at the point of sale," said Andrew Day, Manager of Global Aesthetics at GE Plastics. "New features that provide unique benefits as well as visually appealing looks to products really influence point-of-sale decisions. We think that GLS and GE Plastics are going to come up with some very exciting materials for our customers that will help them build their brands and generate additional sales."

GLS Corporation has supplied elastomeric raw materials to the industry since 1979. The company has produced application-specific, custom TPE compounds since 1984; in 2001, the firm formed a product development partnership with TPR manufacturer DSM. Products offered for molding and extrusion include KRATON(R) thermoplastic rubber compounds, DYNAFLEX(R) thermoplastic elastomer compounds, VERSAFLEX(R) TPE alloys, and new generation VERSALLOY(R) elastomer alloys, which exhibit enhanced performance properties. Applications are found in electronics, telecommunications, power tools, medical, automotive, lawn and garden, appliance, personal care and industrial markets, among others.

GE Plastics is the world's leading producer of engineering thermoplastics, with major production facilities worldwide. GE Plastics materials, including LEXAN(R) polycarbonate, are used in a wide variety of applications such as CDs, automobile parts, computer housings, cookware, outdoor signage, cell phones, bullet resistant shielding and building materials. Through it's LNP Engineering Plastics business, the company is a worldwide leader in the custom compounding of engineering thermoplastics. GE Plastics is also a global distributor of resins through GE Polymerland, and of sheet, film, rod and tube products through GE Polymershapes and GE Structured Products. The company's Web site is located at www.geplastics.com.

LEXAN, CYCOLOY and CYCOLAC are registered trademarks of General Electric Company. Visualfx and Softfx are trademarks of General Electric Company.

DYNAFLEX, VERSAFLEX and VERSALLOY are registered trademarks of GLS Corporation.

DYNAFLEX compounds contain KRATON Polymers.

KRATON is a registered trademark of KRATON Polymers U.S. LLC.

VERSALLOY is a DSM / GLS alliance product.