Fairmount Automation Named One of Philadelphia's Fastest-Growing Privately Held Companies

PHOENIXVILLE, PA-October 26, 2001-Fairmount Automation, Inc., a local engineering firm that designs and manufactures rugged process control equipment primarily for the United States Navy, has recently been ranked 75th in the Philadelphia Business Journal's annual guide of the region's fastest-growing private companies.

"As a young company, we are very proud to take our place next to some of the strongest businesses in the City of Philadelphia," said Andrés Lebaudy, CEO and co-founder of Fairmount Automation. "In the short time since Fairmount Automation was founded, we've successfully built it into a profitable high-tech company with a growth rate of 110% over a two-year period from 1998 to 2000. And we are continuing to grow and expand rapidly as the demand for our products and services increases."

In late October, the Philadelphia Business Journal released its thirteenth annual guide to the region's fastest-growing private companies. Of the more than 1,900 companies nominated, Fairmount Automation was ranked number 75 on the short, prestigious list of 100 local companies. The company was also one of only nine manufacturing companies on the list and the only company selling primarily to the United States military. The research for the list was compiled by the Wharton Small Business Development Center, co-sponsor of this year's corporate guide.

Fairmount Automation, located in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania was founded in 1996 and serves the $160 billion process controls and automation industry. Their rugged process controllers have been automating mission-critical processes onboard U.S. Navy ships including propulsion boilers, waste heat boilers and distilling plants as well as aircraft carrier catapults, used to launch planes from the carriers while deployed at sea.

Today, nearly one in four naval surface ships rely on Fairmount equipment for their most demanding applications and many of the company's products can be found on some of the ships currently deployed in the war against terrorism including the USS Kitty Hawk and the USS Carl Vinson.

About Fairmount Automation, Inc. 

Fairmount Automation designs, manufactures, and sells rugged process control and automation products for use in harsh environments. The company also operates an engineering services division that is sponsored by the US Navy to investigate cutting edge distributed control technologies. The company's flagship product, the FAC-2000, is a fully programmable controller that is used to monitor and regulate industrial machinery such as boilers, pumps, distillers, heat exchangers, aircraft carrier catapults, and waste transfer systems. Since 1997, the company has been a leading supplier of rugged control equipment to the Navy, where our products are controlling mission-critical processes on more than 25% of the surface fleet. Our unique combination of hardware, software and services enables us to offer a compelling solution to our customers. Our mission is to become the leading provider of survivable process control and automation products for harsh environments through the continued development of innovative and technologically advanced products specifically packaged to serve those environments. We aim to be the dominant automation original equipment manufacturer (OEM) for military applications and to consistently gain market share in the worldwide industrial controls market. The company is based in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. For more information, please visit our website at www.FairmountAutomation.com or contact us at info@FairmountAutomation.com or (610) 935-8656.