January 2003

Dear customers and business partners,


Although at the beginning of 2002 the prospects were good, the worldwide economic collapse took toll in many aspects. Unfortunately, the Crown Gear organization suffered severely.

What happened?

- The selfimposed turn-over goals were not achieved.

- The investment banks lost faith in a quick revival of the industry and cancelled their contracts.

- On 18 December 2002 the Crown Gear management had to announce bankruptcy.

Current situation:

The Crown Gear bankruptcy procedure was closed on 23 January 2003. By this date, the companies ASS AG and Norma BV bought all machinery and numerous assets. Already the next day, the double shift production of gears restarted in order to manufacture the open orders.

The ASS AG company had cooperated with Crown Gear over the past 10 years and has now taken over all sales and engineering activities, as well as several coworkers.
At ASS we will work on your inquiries, make your quotations and plan and coordinate your purchase orders. We guarantee a continuous business flow after this turbulent phase.

The Norma BV company (Netherlands) is a former Crown Gear supplier and will now be responsible for production and quality control. It has taken over the production personel, the complete manufacturing equipment, as well as all machinery.

Brunner-Antriebstechnik will continue its representation in the South of Germany and, now on behalf of ASS, will look after the interests of former Crown Gear customers as well as future prospects.

Future

Thanks to the close cooperation between ASS AG, NORMA BV and BRUNNER Antriebstechnik, the strengths of all parties will be enhanced. We expect to realise considerable advantages for our customers, particularly in the fields of technical development, customer service, quick quotations and shorter leadtimes.

We will do anything to keep start-up problems to a minimum and expect to be able to give binding information on current orders, delivery dates and projects by week 06 2003.

We are looking forward to receiving your reactions, questions, critisism, requests for quotations and of course your purchase orders.

Best regards

Stefan Schoen
Managing Director