Midway Specialty Vehicles Inc., a manufacturer in the commercial fleet market for 21 years, was recently acquired by a group of investors consisting of key management individuals at Elk Automotive Inc. including Jim L. Brown, CEO, Terry Collins, Elk president, Dave Moore, executive vice president of Elk and Mike Violi, past president of Goshen Coach, McCoy Miller and founder of National Mobility. Jim L. Brown has announced the appointment of Mr. Violi to the presidency of Midway. According to the company, in the commercial market, Midway is a Tier One supplier with all O.E.M.'s. Midway and Elk will function as two completely separate entities, each claiming to expand the core retail and commercial business that each specializes in. According to the company, Elk Automotive is Dodge's #1 account in the second stage market. When asked for comment, Brown said, "Our key goal is to enhance the diversity of product at Midway and allow Elk to play off the engineering support at Midway. We believe that fleet spending has been at a record low over the last two years, and much of that pent up demand should result in some major fleet buys over the next few years. With Midway's diverse expertise, this company is one of the best positioned to take advantage of over-all corporate demand to replenish fleets. This, coupled with the low cost of money, helps to strengthen the long term expansion of Midway." Midway currently employs 45 and builds about 2,500 vehicles a year representatives of Midway have estimated the total unit production for the calendar year 2002 will be in excess of 5,000 units with over-all employment in 2002 to peak at about 80 individuals. For additional information, contact Michael Violi at (574) 264-2530, ext. 109.