Mr. Rick Leckner reports

DOREL JUVENILE GROUP USA OPENS TECHNICAL CENTER FOR CHILD SAFETY

Dorel Industries Inc. has officially inaugurated the new Dorel Technical Center for Child Safety at the Dorel Juvenile Group (DJG) car seat manufacturing campus in Columbus, Ind. The multimillion-dollar facility will centralize all North American research and development, and product development and will foster cutting-edge innovation in the design of car seats and other juvenile products.

"The new technical centre encompasses everything necessary to conceive, build and test car seats in one ultramodern, state-of-the-art facility," commented Dorel Juvenile Group United States president Dave Taylor. "This industry-leading centre will foster groundbreaking developments in child safety for years to come."

The Dorel Technical Center for Child Safety features specialized research and design facilities, including computational engineering resources, environmental lab testing, three independent crash test sleds and advanced side-impact testing capabilities. The technical centre is located adjacent to Dorel's current one-million-square-foot manufacturing facility which can produce up to 20,000 car seats per day.

"As the largest manufacturer of car seats globally and a leader in many other juvenile product categories, we have a responsibility to design products with the highest standards of quality and safety. We take the trust that parents and caregivers place in Dorel and in our brands very seriously. This latest initiative is proof positive of that," commented Dorel Industries president and chief executive officer Martin Schwartz.

The grand opening of the Dorel Technical Center for Child Safety marks the first major initiative in the company's car seat product capital investment program and entails a total investment of $21-million (U.S.) through 2013. This first phase involved an expenditure of $3.6-million (U.S.) and has resulted in 26 new jobs at the new technical centre. A total of 100 new positions will be created over the next four years in Columbus as a result of the capital investment program.

Several local and state government officials were on hand today for the opening ceremonies.

"By consolidating all of its high-tech product development work in Columbus, Dorel has made Indiana the foundation for the future of its car seat business. Today is further evidence that our business-friendly environment and focus on keeping taxes low yields new opportunities from global companies at the top of their respective industries," said Mitch Roob, Indiana Secretary of Commerce and chief executive officer of the Indiana Economic Development Corp.

Ninety per cent of Dorel's North American car seats and 50 per cent of DJG's U.S. total business are currently produced and distributed from the Columbus facility.