Elster Wins Excellence in Operations Award for Smart Gas Meter Production

ESSEN, Germany, January 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

-Highly effective automation in large scale production for residential gas meters-

Elster (NYSE: ELT) announced today, that Elster's gas meter production facility in Lotte (near Osnabrueck, Germany) has been honoured with the German Global Excellence in Operations (GEO) award. GEO is part of the 'Factory of the Year' benchmarking competition for manufacturing companies and honours outstanding improvements over the entire value chain.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110126/SF35872LOGO-a )

The competition has been organized since 1992 by A.T. Kearney company consultants and the German business periodical magazine, Produktion.

Through continuous process engineering and product innovation, Elster's highly automated Lotte facility generates high-speed throughput time with minimal stock supply, and significant enhancements in production capacity.

"Our innovative manufacturing and assembly processes for residential and commercial gas meters at our location serve as the foundation for our global leadership in gas metering and gas measurement," said Ulrich Clasemann, plant manager and division director for residential metering, Elster Gas International.

"This award recognizes Elster's dedication to quality, safety and to consistently optimizing its production workflow. We expect our engineering success and efficiency have positioned us very well to scale production with the pending demand for smart meters to comply with the 20-20-20 directive in the EU," said Ralf Geiger, executive vice president, Elster Gas International.

An awards ceremony for the 'Factory of the Year/GEO' competition will be held in March 2012 in Dresden, Germany.

About Elster
Elster (NYSE: ELT) is one of the world's largest electricity, gas and water measurement and control providers. Its offerings include distribution monitoring and control, advanced Smart Metering, demand response, networking and software solutions, and numerous related communications and services - key components for enabling consumer choice, operational efficiency and conservation. Its products and solutions are widely used by utilities in the traditional and emerging Smart Grid markets.

Elster has one of the most extensive installed revenue measurement bases in the world, with more than 200 million metering devices deployed over the course of the last 10 years. It sells its products and services in more than 130 countries across electricity, gas, water and multi-utility applications for residential, commercial and industrial, and transmission and distribution applications.

For more information about Elster, please visit http://www.elster.com.