FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Robertsdale's George Spottswood is Alabama's Business Innovator of the Year

For more information contact: Bob Higgins, Vice President, Baldwin County Economic Development Alliance bhiggins@baldwineda.com (251) 947-2445

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ALEXANDER CITY, ALABAMA -

George Spottswood, president of Quality Filters, Inc (QFI); Robertsdale, Alabama and Industrial Filtration Services (IFS); Silverhill, Alabama received the "Alabama Business Innovator Award" from John Shields, President of the Alabama Technology Network at ATN's annual meeting in Alexander City.

Shields noted that this was in recognition of his leadership in manufacturing quality and productivity and his willingness to share this passion with other companies across the state and the country.

The ATN award committee considered over 50 nominations of Alabama business leaders prior to selecting Spottswood and Quality Filters, Inc. / Industrial Filtration Services.

"With more and more manufacturing moving overseas, it is incredibly important that American manufacturers find a way to maintain an American manufacturing base." said Spottswood. "It is foreseeable that problems in or with other countries could interrupt America's supply of critical manufactured goods at very crucial times. As with previous generations, America's precious freedom could rely to a great degree on our ability to maintain this manufacturing base."

"All of us at QFI & IFS want to thank ATN for their support and guidance, which has allowed us to establish our VISION(tm) program. Our VISION program, developed by QFI, stands for Value Individuals, Sustain Improvements and Outperform Needs. Through this program Lean-Sigma and other continuous improvement strategies are implemented. VISION allows all our team members to become actively involved in improving our productivity and quality every day so that we can continue to successfully compete with anyone in the world. Our sincere thanks to ATN for their continued support through our Lean-Sigma journey. We encourage other Alabama companies to take advantage of ATN's expertise."

The Alabama Technology Network provides hands on business and technical assistance using experts located at seven centers of excellence and at the University of Alabama, Auburn University, and the University of Alabama in Huntsville. ATN recently became a part of Alabama's two-year college system.