GKS Purchases Kurion Technologies

August 30, 2010

By Dave Carl, George Koch Sons, VP Business Development

George Koch Sons, LLC is pleased to announce that its subsidiary, George Koch Sons Europe Limited, has acquired a 51 percent share in Kurion Technologies Limited.

Founded in 1999 and located in Daventry, Northants, UK about 50 miles east of Koch’s Lichfield office, Kurion specializes in water treatment, resource recovery and recycling for manufacturing and process industries. Since 2004, Kurion has positioned itself as a “Solutions Specialists” offering economically and environmentally effective answers to the water, chemical and effluent issues in selected industries. Visit www.kurion.co.uk.

Kurion has delivered more than 50 project solutions into automotive, aerospace, electronics, metal finishing and waste management sectors. Over the past three years the business has expanded to the European continent and into new processes, such as advanced oxidation. Kurion has supplied Koch over the past four years, installing projects at Aston Martin, Bentley and Ford, with major installations at Airbus and John Deere now in progress.

Within a week of the acquisition, Koch was awarded a significant contract with Rolls-Royce North America for an effluent treatment plant near Richmond, Virginia - winning the order on the strength of the technical solution developed by Kurion. This order represents Koch’s initial process equipment venture into the aerospace market in North America.

One of the goals listed in the Koch 2010 Business Plan is to win significant new sales of water treatment systems. The acquisition of Kurion is a significant step in achieving this goal. In addition, the purpose of this acquisition includes the following elements:

• Establishing Koch as a leader in environmentally-responsible specialized water treatment solutions.

• Expanding our markets both geographically and technologically.

• Growing sales by creating a Koch/Kurion synergy - building lean and effective sales, operations and administrative teams from the resources, standards and practices of the individual companies.

• Improving profitability by reduced outsourcing and increased self-performance of key system components.

But just as important, almost every human around the planet comes into contact with water every day. The acquisition of Kurion extends to Koch an opportunity to make a valuable contribution to individual safety, hygiene, health, recreation and comfort in the communities where we work and live.

We welcome Ian Burke, the managing Director of Kurion, and his team into the Koch organization!