Pall Reports Strong Biopharmaceutical Sales

Pall Corporation (East Hills, NY, www.pall.com) reported strong sales growth in itsbiopharmaceuticals business in the fiscal third quarter (ending April30, 2006) and announced plans for a company-wide cost-savings program.

Pall reported fiscal third quarter sales of $510 million, up from$493.5 million in the year-ago period. Sales for the nine-month periodending April 30 increased 3% to $1.42 billion.

"In this quarter, we saw good growth in microelectronics andbiopharmaceutical sales at 36.5% and 18% (in local currency),respectively, driven by strong demand across product lines and in allgeographies," said Eric Krasnoff, Pall's chairman and CEO. "Overallbacklog is at an all-time high, and we continue to make progress on ourtotal fluid management strategy, increasing system sales in everygeography particularly in our biopharmaceuticals and food and beveragemarkets."

In an effort to improve margins, however, Pall announced a facilitiesreduction and consolidation program, expected to generate annualizedsavings of $40 million in costs and $10 million in taxes by the end offiscal 2008. The company's facilities rationalization program willreduce its footprint by more than 20% and cut global manufacturingheadcount by 10%. The rationalization is expected to be substantiallycomplete by the end of fiscal 2008, realizing roughly 20% of the costsavings in 2007.