Johns Manville represents reinforcements business at JEC 2002 in Paris for the first time

Bad Homburg, February 28, 2002 --- Johns Manville, traditionally known as a global market leader in roofing systems, insulation and nonwoven products, is exhibiting its glass fiber reinforcements business at the JEC in Paris for the first time.

In the past, Johns Manville, headquartered in Denver, Colorado, produced and marketed glass fiber reinforcements for automotive, industrial and consumer applications only in North America.

Through the acquisition of Skloplast in Trnava/Slovakia in February 2001, Johns Manville attained an important milestone in its development of a global reinforcements business. While Johns Manville's North America reinforcements business is focused on direct rovings and chopped strands, Skloplast - which has gained significant market share in Europe over the last 10 years - has a very complementary product portfolio with assembled and direct rovings, CSM and chopped strands.

The reinforcements business, as part of Johns Manville's global Engineered Products Group (EPG), is represented in Europe/Asia by Johns Manville Europe headquartered in Bad Homburg, Germany. In addition to reinforcements, Johns Manville's European businesses produce glass and polyester nonwoven products as well as textile glass fabric wall coverings. Its Asian headquarters, containing both marketing and manufacturing capabilities, is located near Shanghai in Qingpu, China. For the first time ever, Johns Manville Europe will be exhibiting under a common corporate identity at the JEC in Paris (Hall 1, Stand G22/H19).

Johns Manville Europe will market and manufacture the former Skloplast product range as well as glass fibers produced in North America. The former Skloplast products enjoy a very high reputation in terms of quality and performance in the Western European industry. Johns Manville is the European market leader for automotive and electrical applications in the field of sheet molding compounds (SMC).

The business will be supported in the future by two centers of excellence in Waterville, Ohio (USA) and Trnava, Slovakia. They will work closely together with their customers in future product and application development.

Johns Manville will introduce several new products at the JEC ranging from direct rovings to chopped strands for thermoplastic to thermoset reinforcements for various industries.

Direct rovings are increasingly used for the rapidly growing long fiber technology (LFT), e.g. for automotive semi-structural parts. In SMC Johns Manville will be introducing a new roving suitable for Class A automotive body panels.

Johns Manville, a Berkshire Hathaway company, is a leading manufacturer and marketer of premium-quality building, specialty and reinforcement products. In business since 1858, the Denver, USA-based company has sales in excess of $2 billion and holds leadership positions in all of the key markets that it serves. Johns Manville employs approximately 9,500 people worldwide and operates 52 manufacturing facilities in North America, Europe and Asia. Johns Manville Europe has over 2,800 employees at 11 European and Chinese manufacturing facilities located in Wertheim, Bobingen, Berlin, Karlstein and Steinach, Germany; Lubliniec, Poland; Helsingborg and Oskarstrom, Sweden; St. Helens, U.K; Trnava, Slovakia and Shanghai, China. Additional information can be found at www.jm.com