THE HISTORY OF MILLS PRODUCTS, INC.

The corporate and administrative office of Mills Products is located in Brentwood, Tennessee. The manufacturing facilities are located in Athens, Tennessee and San Luis Potosi, Mexico. In total, Mills is made up of over 100 employees dedicated to serving nearly 150 appliance and automotive customers.

Mills Products got its start as Mills Engineering Company. It was founded in Detroit, Michigan in 1945 by Mr. & Mrs. Herbert E. Mills. Mr. Mills had worked for several oven manufacturing companies from the late 1920's to the beginning of World War II at which time he moved to Detroit. During the war he worked for a Detroit area manufacturing company as a tool design engineer. Near the end of the war he founded Mills Engineering Company and provided engineering services to several industries including the major appliance industry. While striving to succeed with the engineering company he designed and patented the oven door window. Because of the technical know how required to manufacture the oven door window the appliance manufacturers did not want to manufacture the windows under license but requested that Mr. Mills manufacture the windows for them. In 1948 the first oven door windows were produced in the Mills family basement for Grand Home Appliance Company.

Orders for oven door windows flourished and in 1950 the company moved into a 23,000 square foot building in Walled Lake, Michigan. The company was incorporated in 1952 under the name of Mills Products, Incorporated. In 1960 the company acquired Sta-Brite Plating located in Wayne, Michigan. The plating company added about 18,000 square feet of factory space and created Mills' entry into the nickel-chrome plating industry. With the success of Mr. Mills' new designs of appliance handles in the late 1950's and eye level oven doors and decorative trim in the early 1960's Mills was, once again, in need of more manufacturing space. Plans for a new 100,000 square foot building began in 1964. A site in Farmington, Michigan was selected and the building was completed in 1966. It was planned to move the Wayne and Walled Lake plants into the new Farmington factory.

Mr. Mills died in March, 1965 and never saw the completion of his new factory. In addition to the oven door window, Mr. Mills created more than 40 other patents including space heaters, gas ignition systems, flair guns for the U.S. military and even various types of fishing tackle.

After the end of World War 11, Mr. Mills' son, Mr. Vernon 1. Mills, worked closely with his father helping direct the company's growth through the 1950' and 1960's. Upon the death of Mr. Mills Sr. Mr. Vernon Mills assumed his father's position as president of the company and led the company into more expansion. Sales to Canada from the Farmington factory were growing substantially. In 1968 Mills Appliance Products, Ltd. was founded near Toronto in the city of Bramalea, Ontario, Canada. This company manufactured and sold oven door windows to the Canadian appliance industry. The Canadian company operated until it was reunited with the Farmington factory in 1979.

Mr. Mills was president of the company until his sudden death in 1971. Following his death there were two non family presidents Messrs. George T. Mash and Mr. John R. Wright. Following Mr. Wright's retirement in 1978 the company was once again led by family members with the appointment of Mr. Bob D. and Vernon H. Mills as President and Executive Vice President respectively. Both are grandsons of the founders.

The glass processing business at Mills was a very important technology because of the vast amount of tempered and decorated glass used in the manufacture of oven door windows and eye level doors. The ability to produce tempered glass led the company into a new business using current knowledge. In 1982 Perma View Processed Glass was opened in Clarksville, Tennessee. It took its name from Mr. Herbert E. Mills' trade mark for the first oven door window, "Perma View". This division had the latest in glass processing equipment the world had to offer at that time. The sales of glass from Perma View were shipped to manufacturers of many different kinds of appliances including cooking appliances, outdoor barbecue grills and refrigerators as well as other industry uses. After an expansion in 1988 including the installation of a second state of the art tempering furnace and continued growth the division was sold to Gemtron Corporation, the largest supplier of flat glass products to the North American appliance industry. Today, the former Perma View plant still operates in Clarksville.

During 1985, the appliance industry, in an effort to change its appliance styling to a more European look, required its suppliers to provide durable painted metal trim parts and reduce the requirements for chrome plated components. Mills accepted this challenge and installed a new powder coating system in the Farmington division. Well over half of the production time on the powder coating line was devoted to the coating of automotive component parts. Mills developed a reputation for excellent service and quality of powder coated parts for both the appliance industry and the automotive industry from the Farmington plant.

During the late 1970's and through out the 1980's the appliance industry, through acquisitions and mergers, consolidated its manufacturing operations. By the end of the 1980's approximately 85% of all the domestic cooking ranges were produced between Findlay, Ohio and Lafayette, Georgia. Because of this, Mills was in need of relocating its manufacturing to a more central site. A relocation would help Mills maintain its market in appliance handles, trim and oven door windows. In 1989 the Athens, Tennessee location was selected as the site of the company's new manufacturing facility. By October, 1990 all appliance handles and trim were being manufactured at the Athens plant. In January, 1992 all production had been moved from Farmington, Michigan to the Athens plant. Today, this plant serves appliance manufacturers located in Canada, Mexico, the United States and Venezuela.

During the 1990's, some manufacturing of major appliances was moved to Mexico. Because of this, transportation costs for components manufactured by quality suppliers located in the United States became excessive. Mills, once again, met this challenge by opening a new manufacturing plant in San Luis Potosi, Mexico in 1998.

This new facility supplies roll formed and powder coated handles and trim parts to appliance manufacturers located in Mexico.

Following its normal course of leading the industry with new and innovative ideas, Mills became the sole licensee of a metal forming process utilizing water. The new process, known as Hydro Forming, allows metal to be formed using water under high pressure to form sheet or tubular metal. Both processes can be used extensively to manufacture many appliance component parts. Also, the hydro forming of tubes enables Mills to offer single piece appliance handles that can be powder coated to the customers requirements. The use of steel allows for much better quality and durability over plastics and is much more cost effective than die casting or plastic molded parts.

Mills Products is well poised to serve its growing customer base with its capabilities in metal fabrication, hydro forming, assembly and the powder coating of fabricated metal parts made by the many excellent employees of the company. Although the original oven window products first patented by Mr. Herbert E. Mills have changed substantially over the past four decades, the basic business capabilities of the company remain. Manufacturing appliance handles, trim and window assemblies require expertise in metal fabricating and finishing. Mills has restructured itself to face the challenges of doing business in the last decade of this century and has secured a clear direction into the twenty first century.