FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

John Black

H.I.G. Capital, LLC
(305) 379-2322

H.I.G. SELLS PLASTIC FABRICATING COMPANY, INC.

MIAMI - December 21, 2001 - H.I.G. Capital, a Miami based private equity firm with over $750 million of capital under management, announced that it has completed the sale of Plastic Fabricating Company, Inc. (“PlasticFab”), based in Wichita, Kansas to publicly traded Kaman Corp. (NASDAQ: KAMNA), a leading manufacturer of aircraft components.  Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

PlasticFab is a leading supplier of custom engineered composites, advanced plastic components and complex assemblies for commercial and military aerospace applications with estimated sales this year in excess of $14 million.  PlasticFab’s customers include many of the country’s premier aerospace companies such as Boeing, Bell Helicopter Textron, Sikorsky Aircraft, Lockheed Martin, and Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd.  The company employs approximately 180 people at its 150,000-square-foot Wichita facility.

H.I.G. acquired PlasticFab in 1996 from its then U.K. parent, at a time when it was incurring significant operating losses.  H.I.G. developed, financed and implemented a comprehensive and highly successful turnaround plan, which included providing interim management, overseeing operational improvements, and building a sales infrastructure.  The Company has since become one of only five approved Boeing vendors.  John Black, Managing Director at H.I.G, said, “We are very proud of the success of PlasticFab, which has emerged as an industry leader with an outstanding reputation for delivering quality, on-time products to its customers”.

H.I.G. Capital, a leading private equity investment firm, has a controlling interest in over 50 companies with combined revenues in excess of $3 billion.