September 21, 2005

Beginning in the closing months of 2004, Lauren partnered with Wellman as the EPC contractor for the Pearl River Plant Expansion Project, located in the Port Bienville Industrial Park, Bay St. Louis, MS. As with any project, overcoming challenges has been a part of daily life for Lauren’s project management team, not the least of which has been weather.

At the beginning of May, Hurricane Dennis, a level 4 hurricane, threatened the Gulf Coast with winds in excess of 150 mph. Dennis was believed to be on track for the Mississippi coastline, forcing Lauren to close the project for a period of one week. Thankfully, Dennis did not affect the Bay St. Louis area and Lauren, despite losing a week, continued the project ahead of schedule.

Then, on August 29th, Hurricane Katrina made due on her threat, slamming the Gulf Coast from New Orleans, Louisiana to Mobile, Alabama, resulting in one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history. While the Wellman project escaped Katrina’s wrath with no serious structural damage or injuries to personnel, there were substantial minor damages. Specifically, the Wellman jobsite was flooded with between 2-3 feet of salt water and marsh mud, resulting in damaged pumps, drives, switchgear, electrical controls, and undermining pipe supports, rail lines and other minor civil structures. Currently, Lauren is supporting Wellman in an effort to repair these damages and restore the plant to normal operation as quickly as possible.

Despite these unavoidable circumstances, Lauren has proven its unswerving commitment to safety and schedule by maintaining 0 lost-time accidents to date and by setting a tentative project restart date of October 10, 2005.

Wellman has recognized Lauren for their prompt support in the Hurricane Katrina recovery process. Lauren and Wellman are committed to the success of this project, which is being rescheduled for completion in the second quarter of 2006.