SAFC Hitech Expands Sheboygan Facility With State-Of-The-Art Manufacturing Cleanroom

April 29, 2008... Sigma-Aldrich is a leading Life Science and High Technology company. Its biochemical and organic chemical products and kits are used in scientific and genomic research, biotechnology, pharmaceutical development, the diagnosis of disease and as key components in pharmaceutical and other high technology manufacturing. The Company has customers in life science companies, university and government institutions, hospitals, and in industry. For more information about Sigma-Aldrich, please visit its award-winning Web site at sigma-aldrich.com. Chicago, Illinois USA

Facility Increases In-house Capabilities and Quality Control

St. Louis Missouri USA -- SAFC Hitech, a focus area within SAFC(R), a member of the Sigma-Aldrich Group (Nasdaq: SIAL), today underlined its commitment to the electronic materials markets with the opening of a $9 million state-of-the-art cleanroom located on the Company's Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin campus. The 5,000 square foot facility consists of an ISO Class 4 cleanroom, a distillation suite and office space.

The new facility, which became fully operational in late April 2008, provides in-house trace metals analysis and the capability to clean and fill containers in a tightly-controlled environment. The Sheboygan campus was selected as the site for the new cleanroom as it already provides large-scale manufacturing of products for the material science industry for SAFC, which supports the silicon semiconductor, compound semiconductor and performance materials markets.

The extension of the Sheboygan campus enables SAFC Hitech to produce, package and analyze its products in one location, completing the total supply chain, eliminating the need to use outside facilities and ensuring customers an uninterrupted supply of the highest quality materials required for advanced semiconductor manufacturing.

"One of SAFC's primary business objectives is to continue to build the SAFC Hitech segment into a global leader in the supply of ultra-pure, high quality materials and technical solutions to the electronics industries we serve," commented SAFC President, Frank Wicks. "As the demand for new and increasingly efficient materials continues to grow, so does the need to attain higher and higher levels of quality and dependability from our products."

"This cleanroom investment complements existing manufacturing and extensive research and development sites at Sheboygan and will help us to achieve our objectives, essentially providing a 'one stop shop' for manufacturing, analysis and packaging. As a result, SAFC Hitech customers will benefit from high-quality products that meet or exceed specifications, feature significantly reduced quality variations and are delivered on time."

Looking ahead, Geoff Irvine, Director, Commercial Development & Marketing, SAFC Hitech, believes the Sheboygan facility can act as a blueprint for future expansion in overseas markets. "In 2007 we announced long-term plans for the expansion of our manufacturing footprint in both China and South Korea," Irvine says. "We expect to be able to use the construction and operational experiences gained from Sheboygan and apply it to future, similar developments serving other markets, thereby expanding our global presence using tried and tested methodologies."