POWER PROCESS PIPING

PPP, originally founded in 1974, began in Wyandotte, Michigan as a piping maintenance provider to the power generation industry. Through the middle to late 1970's, PPP grew modestly as it began to secure work in the heavy industrial market. Then in 1979, the Company received its largest project to-date. PPP was contracted to install the non-nuclear piping for Detroit Edison's Fermi 2, a nuclear power plant located in Monroe, Michigan. This project proved to be very challenging for the Company, yet enabled PPP to strengthen its reputation as a trusted supplier of complex piping systems. With the experience of the Fermi 2 project, PPP began to expand rapidly in the heavy industrial and power generation fields. With the additional workload came an increased need for skilled union craft employees. Accordingly, solid relationships were developed with the local Pipefitters and Plumbers unions. These relationships, formed in the 1970s and 1980s, continue to be a vital part of the Company's success. In late 1979, PPP moved its headquarters to Trenton, Michigan. The Company's new location consisted of office space and a larger facility for the fabrication of piping. The ability to perform more fabrication at a centralized location and less in the field gave the Company a competitive advantage over many of the smaller companies in the industry. Throughout the 1980s and the early 1990s, PPP began to diversify into new markets, specifically the automotive paint systems market. One of the early projects completed was a paint system for General Motors in Lake Orion, Michigan. This project allowed PPP to develop the technology and expertise needed to become a major contractor for both new and retrofit turnkey paint mix and circulation systems. Since that time, PPP has installed complete paint systems and major subsystems for each of the Big Three automotive manufacturers throughout the eastern half of the United States. The Company once again outgrew its facilities and moved to its present location in 1988. The new facility in Plymouth, Michigan consists of two new buildings with approximately 50,000 square feet of fabrication space. This additional fabrication space gave PPP the ability to maximize field productivity and meet even the most demanding schedules. Throughout the 1990s, PPP began to seek additional opportunities outside of the heavy industrial and power generation industries. As a result of its diversification efforts, work was completed, and in some instances is ongoing, for companies such as BASF, Kellogg, E.B. Eddy, Parke Davis, Dow, UDV, Marathon Oil, and Total Petroleum. These projects have enabled PPP to gain the experience needed to compete in the petrochemical, food and pharmaceutical industries. PPP became Q1 certified in the fall of 1997, ISO 9001 certified in the spring of 1999 and ISO 14001 certified in the winter of 2002. These certifications, along with many awards from various OEM's have designated PPP as one of the elite within the piping industry.