Eastman Reaches Agreement to Close Its Manufacturing Site In Bury, England

KINGSPORT, Tennessee, April 29, 2003- Eastman Chemical Company (NYSE:EMN), through its subsidiary Eastman Company UK Limited, announced today that it has reached agreement with employees at its Bury, England, site to close the facility.

This agreement is the result of discussions that began Feb. 25 and is part of the company’s realignment of its European coatings operations in response to recent customer geographic consolidations. Eastman plans to cease all production at this site by end of the year.

“We appreciate the individual and collective contributions made by the employees at our Bury site in meeting our customers’ needs,” said Brian Ferguson, chairman and CEO. “With changes in our customers’ requirements, and with the current structural overcapacity in the coatings resins industry in Europe, we need to keep our costs in line in a highly competitive environment.”

Said Godefroy Motte, president of Eastman’s European operations, “Our customers are very important to us, and we are committed to delivering first-class service. As we transition production from our Bury facility to other European manufacturing sites, we will continue to work with customers so that they are impacted as little as possible.” Motte added that during the next few weeks, Eastman will be in communication with customers and employees to address issues specific to them.

The Bury site produces solvent-based alkyds, including polyamide thixotropic alkyds, polyesters and epoxy esters. The facility, which has approximately 30 employees, was part of Eastman’s acquisition of McWhorter Technologies in 2000.

Eastman also has European coatings manufacturing facilities in Sokolov, Czech Republic; Hamburg, Germany; Cola' di Lazise and Sant'Al bano, Italy; and Mölndal, Sweden.

For more than 70 years, Eastman has been a leading provider of high-quality raw materials and services for the global paint and coatings industry. Today, Eastman offers a comprehensive product portfolio for use in conventional, high-solid, waterborne, radiation curable and powder coatings for architectural, automotive and industry coatings. Through an aggressive commitment to technology-based innovation, Eastman’s coating organization is dedicated to helping its customers deliver the most cost-effective solutions to meet the challenging performance and environmental requirements in today’s marketplace.

Eastman’s coatings organization is part of the company’s coatings, adhesives, specialty polymers and inks segment. The impact of the Bury plant closure is not material to the company's financial results.

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