IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 23, 2018

GWS Tool Group Announces Acquisition of Benchmark Carbide

 TAVARES, FL – GWS Tool Group announced today the acquisition of Custom Carbide Corp (A/K/A Benchmark Carbide) of Springfield, Massachusetts (“Benchmark”).

Founded in 1980, Benchmark has become an industry leader in the design and manufacturing of a wide range of standard high performance endmills.  “Benchmark is a fantastic addition to our team” said Rick McIntyre, CEO of GWS Tool Group. “Benchmark will serve as a major production unit for the round tool side of our catalog. This will allow our other round tool divisions to focus more and more energy on our custom offerings, which the market continues to so consistently demand.”

Benchmark will continue to operate out of the facility in Springfield under the direction of their long tenured management team and Benchmark’s entire catalog of offerings will now be made available by way of the GWS Tool Group brand.

“I couldn’t be more proud of what we’ve accomplished at Benchmark” said Paul St Louis, founder and president of Benchmark. “The relationships that we have built with our partners are what has made us who we are, and I could not be more thankful to each and every one of them for helping us get to where we are today. While our history at Benchmark is rich, I think the next chapter is going to be even more exciting for our team and I am so excited to have it be written in partnership with everyone at GWS Tool Group.”

About GWS Tool Group

GWS Tool Group is a US-based, vertically integrated, manufacturer of highly engineered custom, standard and modified standard cutting tools, primarily servicing aerospace and defense, power generation, automotive and medical sectors.  The subsidiary companies that comprise GWS Tool Group are GW Schultz Tool, CGI Tool and Alliance CNC together with the most recent addition of Benchmark.

For more information, please visit www.GWSToolGroup.com or contact Adam Lafferty, EVP of Sales and Marketing for GWS Tool Group, at adam@gwstoolgroup.com or 407.405.5824.