April 6, 2006

By Lauren Heaton

YSI Incorporated disposed of one of its original product lines last week when it sold its precision temperature division to Measurement Specialities, Incorporated, of Hampton, Va.

The temperature facility was located in Beavercreek and employed just over 100 people. It represented 15 percent of YSI’s business, according to Rick Omlor, president and CEO of YSI.

The sale will affect three Yellow Springs employees, who will transfer to the Beavercreek operation.

The precision temperature gauge was YSI’s first commercial product, which helped propel the company through the 1950s and into the $68 million global corporation it is today, YSI says on its Web site. YSI moved its temperature division to Beavercreek in 1999.

In the past, YSI’s temperature, environmental and life sciences divisions each represented a third of the company’s business, Omlor said in an interview.

But because of a reorganization two years ago, when YSI Temperature New Jersey and Nikkisio/YSI, located in Japan, merged with YSI Temperature in Beavercreek, the temperature division “did not do well last year,” he said.

At the same time, Omlor said, the environmental and life sciences divisions, which develop biotechnology instruments and products to monitor water quality, have grown to 85 percent of the business.

“For temperature to be successful, it needed investment in R&D and capital, which we needed for our environmental business,” he said. “We needed to make a choice of where we focused and how we focused, because as a small business, we can’t do it all.”

YSI plans to rely on its strengths in developing instrumentation and providing high-contact customer service by investing in its sites in Yellow Springs and San Diego, Omlor said.

He said the company expects to create at least five new engineering and high-level sales and marketing positions at each site.

In addition YSI hopes to acquire complementary product lines and technology that would help grow the environmental market, Omlor said.

Meanwhile, the temperature business will complement and enhance Measurement Specialities’ temperature product line, YSI said in a press release announcing the sale.

“It was the right thing to do for YSI and temperature,” Omlor said.

Contact: lheaton@ysnews.com