FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Dick Hildebrand
Yale Cordage, Inc.
207-282-3396

Orion Rope Works

Tuesday, March 19th,Winslow, Maine--The court ordered asset sale of Crowe Rope Industry’s machinery and equipment was completed one week ago (on March 12th) and yesterday, rope production in Winslow, Maine restarted under the name of a new company: Orion Ropeworks.

Orion has been formed by a group of eleven investors in Maine and Massachusetts who believe that Maine is still a viable location for world class manufacturing. The deal was put together by James Edgerly (Lexington, MA), Tom Yale (Portland, ME), and Tom Laurita (Camden, ME). Each has been working on the transaction since early December.

James Edgerly will be the new company’s CEO. At present, he is a Director of The Recovery Group (TRG), the leading turnaround management company in New England, specializing in restructuring distressed industrial companies. Mr. Edgerly will leave his position at TRG to operate Orion. Prior to becoming a Director of TRG, Mr. Edgerly founded Industrial Restructuring Corporation in 1991 which later merged with TRG. He was also a Senior Consultant at Arthur D. Little, Inc from 1983 to 1990. Edgerly is 15% owner of Orion Ropeworks. Several of Edgerly’s partners at The Recovery Group are also Orion investors.

Tom Yale is President of Yale Cordage, Inc. of Biddeford, Maine. Yale and Edgerly met over the telephone, while both were seeking to buy Crowe assets in early December. Edgerly has been a fixture at the Yale facility ever since, working closely with Tom Yale on putting the transaction together.

Tom Yale bought the company his Father founded over 50 years ago, and has since built Yale Cordage into the technical leader of the US cordage industry. Most high performance rope constructions developed over the past ten years have been pioneered by Yale Cordage – including braided products made of Kevlar, Spectra, Vectran and PBO. Yale products are featured on most world class racing yachts, at all major power utility companies in North America, and in sophisticated oceanographic acoustic applications. Tom returned this weekend from a design meeting in Southampton, England where he is consulting on rigging for the largest sloop ever built - the Mirabella V.

Investor enthusiasm grew quickly once the word got out that Yale Cordage was participating in the formation of Orion Ropeworks. Yale Cordage owns 18% of Orion Ropeworks, and four other investors in Orion have had close, long-term involvement with Yale Cordage.

The third founding investor, Tom Laurita, will own just under 20% of the company and is expected to play an important role on the company’s Board of Directors. Laurita has founded successful ventures in pharmaceuticals, construction, and agricultural chemical industries.

Orion Ropeworks will operate out of a leased manufacturing facility in Winslow, Maine. The building was taken over by the Town of Winslow as a result of the Crowe Bankruptcy. The equipment Orion purchased from Crowe is primarily oriented towards the production of commodity rope products. It is expected that the affiliation with Yale Cordage will enable the company to gradually upgrade its product offering towards a more specialized, high performance product line. With the advent of high modulus fibers, rope now competes with steel cable in numerous structural applications. Furthermore, rope constructions are now used in a wide range of utility, electrical, and telecom applications. The Orion/Yale product line will sell across a very broad range of applications, a feature that will make the combined companies unique within the US rope industries.

Edgerly has experienced numerous obstacles in establishing Orion in the wake of the Crowe bankruptcy. To create a clean break from the past, the new company has a new name, 100% new ownership, new executive and financial management, and an entirely new business strategy. Some previous Crowe managers have been selected to stay on with Orion. Most importantly, the Plant Manager, Shift Supervisors, and Maintenance team, were all hired from the previous company. Some sales staff has also been retained. The new company will be smaller than its predecessor, focused on fewer market segments and a narrower product line.

Debt financing for Orion has been provided by KeyBank in Portland. Key provided both term financing for the purchase of equipment, and a line of credit to support growth of Orion’s working capital.

A critical role in establishing the company was also played by the Finance Authority of Maine (FAME). Fame provided loan insurance for KeyBank, a feature that was essential in allowing the transaction to take place. Additionally, the decision by the community of Winslow, Maine to lease the manufacturing facility to Orion and work toward preserving jobs was also central to the new company’s formation.

For Additional Info:
James B. Edgerly
Orion Ropeworks, LLC
207-877-2224, ext 234

Tom Yale
Yale Cordage, Inc.
207-282-3396

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