FILL CONTINUES ON ROAD TO SUCCESS

The Upper Austrian machine engineering group can look back on the most successful year in the company´s history and has made a promising start to the new year. In line with the strategic orientation, Fill Machine Engineering has acquired stakes in several companies in recent months. With the takeover of amTec Trading GmbH, we are on our way to becoming number one in low-pressure casting. The vision of establishing our own competence center for IT has since given rise to a separate company – CORE smartwork GmbH. The interest from potential customers in this unique communication platform has exceeded all expectations. With its 20 percent shareholding in elotec GmbH, Fill now has a competent partner in the field of sheet metal production parts. The first construction phase of the "Fill 2020" project has been completed. A total of 25 million euros is flowing into expansion of the Gurten plant. Gurten, 11 February 2013 – "2012 was an exceptionally demanding year marked by many successes and developments that will strengthen our company sustainably," say CEOs Andreas Fill and Wolfgang Rathner in declaring themselves satisfied with the last twelve months. Thanks to many promising developments and cooperative agreements, Fill Machine Engineering has expanded its portfolio and strengthened its core areas of expertise. Fill´s acquisition of a stake in amTec GmbH was particularly well-received by the market. The combination of standard machine manufacturer with automation specialist and special machine builder provides both companies with incomparable competitive advantages. Expansion of production capacity at Fill´s site in Gurten Expansion of the Fill Technology Park in Gurten as part of the "Fill 2020" project is proceeding as planned. Covering an area of 8,000 square meters, a logistics hall and two new production halls are now complete. New systems are already being assembled there. A high-performance, energy-efficient component cleaning cabin and a new spray-painting booth provide decisive benefits in terms of quality and quantity as well as ergonomics and environmental compatibility. Construction of the new logistics hall has doubled warehouse capacity and optimized the material and workflow logistics. Successful entry into the wind power industry With the speedlayer 800, Fill has revolutionized rotor blade production for wind power plants. Production costs can be reduced significantly thanks to automation of the rotor blade manufacturing process. At the same time, quality, productivity, and process reliability are increased. Its world premiere at the Husum WindEnergy trade fair in September 2012 surprised international experts. Numerous concrete project inquiries testify to the high level of interest in this new technology. Networked employees. Provide meaning! Developed from the Fill Intranet, CORE smartwork GmbH bundles central employee relationship management functions and tasks into a unique communication instrument. At the same time, state-of-the-art insights into staff and organizational developments are taken into account. Many potential customers have already expressed their interest in this completely new facility for employee relationship management. Corporate data Fill is a leading international machine and plant manufacturing company for diverse branches of industry. The family-owned business excels in the use of the latest technologies in management, communication, and production. Business operations encompass the fields of metal, plastics and wood for the automotive, aircraft, wind energy, sport and building industries The company is the global market leader in ski and snowboard production machines and aluminum core removal technology. Andreas Fill and Wolfgang Rathner are joint CEOs of the company founded in 1966 that is still completely family-owned. The company became a public limited company (GmbH) in 1987, was certified in accordance with ISO 9001 in 1997, and now has more than 550 employees. More information can be found at: www.fill.co.at If you have any further questions, please contact: Kommhaus Altausseer Strasse 220 8990 Bad Aussee / Austria Tel.: +43 3622 55344-0 Fax: +43 3622 55344-17 E-mail: presse@kommhaus.com