Applied Australia Pty Ltd joins ITW Inc.
Effective February 1, 2007 Applied joined the ITW global group of companies.

The shareholders of Applied Australia were unanimous in their acceptance of the offer by Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE: ITW) to acquire their holding in this well known and long established Australian company.

Applied’s business is providing innovative cleaning solutions to improve the health, safety, performance and environmental impact for their customers across a broad range of industrial, commercial and consumer applications. Applied has a well-earned reputation for providing innovative products backed by skilled and dedicated technical service teams throughout Australia.

Applied will continue to be headquartered in Melbourne and has manufacturing plants and product development teams in Melbourne and Brisbane that support the sales and service staff located close to customers in all major cities and key regional locations.

ITW is committed to maintaining this capability and building on this solid foundation going forward. ITW has over 20 operating businesses in Australia and New Zealand across a wide variety of industrial, commercial and consumer markets.

The global ITW company has over US$14 billion in revenues and is a diversified manufacturer of highly engineered components and industrial systems and consumables. The Company consists of approximately 750 business units in 49 countries and employs some 55,000 people.