PITMAN, NJ (September 6, 2005)—K-Tron International, Inc. (NASDAQ KTII) recently announced the formation of the K-Tron Process Group, merging the Company’s Pneumatic Conveying Group into the K-Tron Feeder Group. The purpose of the reorganization is to more closely align the pneumatic conveying business with the feeder business since both share common customers and the feeder group represents a significant distribution channel for the pneumatic conveying products.

The K-Tron Process Group will have three brands and products lines: K-Tron Feeders, K-Tron Pneumatic Conveying Systems (PCS) and K-Tron Colormax. As part of that reorganization, K-Tron will phase out the use of the “Hurricane” brand name that the K-Tron Feeder Group has used for its sale of pneumatic conveying products and instead use K-Tron Pneumatic Conveying Systems (PCS).At the same time, K-Tron has elected to phase out use of the name “K-Tron Soder” as the brand name for feeders and simply use K-Tron Feeders.

Kevin C. Bowen, who has served as President and CEO of  K-Tron America and Senior Vice President of the global K-Tron Feeder Group, now heads the global K-Tron Process Group.  “Going forward, we want to use the worldwide strength of the K-Tron name as much as possible in all of our brands,” says Bowen.

"The K-Tron brand has been recognized as having number one market share in gravimetric feeders in both the USA and Europe in recent Frost & Sullivan reports.  K-Tron has also earned the Chemical Processing Readers’ Choice Award as the ‘Best Provider of Technology’ in the category of Feeders in both 2004 and 2005.  It makes sense to leverage the K-Tron name."

Bowen and the K-Tron Process Group now plan to place a much stronger focus on the growth of both pneumatic conveying and systems engineering services, build on their success in the feeder business and provide broader, more integrated solutions for their customer base.  “While we have been able to provide a vacuum conveying system along with a feeding system for some time,” according to Bowen, “the new, simpler organizational structure will enable us to provide this service more efficiently at competitive prices. Research studies have repeatedly shown us that customers in the process industries prefer to acquire one integrated solution from one supplier over dealing with multiple vendors and then working out the interface themselves.”

K-Tron entered the pneumatic conveying business in 1997, with the acquisition of Hurricane, a small Canadian company. The pneumatic conveying business was further strengthened by the acquisition of Colormax Limited in 2000 (plastics auxiliaries) and Pneumatic Conveying Systems Limited (PCS) in 2001, both in the United Kingdom. The PCS and Colormax businesses have been run by a separate K-Tron division, the Pneumatic Conveying Group, and have remained mostly focused on the UK market. PCS, located in Stockport, England, was established in 1990 to design, build and commission high quality pneumatic conveying systems.