Charles Industries Appoints National Sales Director for CATV Sales; Names New CATV Manufacturers' Representative Firms

ROLLING MEADOWS, IL--(Marketwire - March 19, 2009) - Charles Industries, Ltd., a leading provider of outside plant innovations for communications service providers, has named Timothy J. O'Brien as the National Sales Director of its new CATV/Broadband sales team. O'Brien will manage Charles' CATV sales team efforts to launch its newly released lines of non-metallic pedestals and housings to CATV providers and Multiple Service Operators (MSO). The hiring of O'Brien culminates a busy first quarter of activity for Charles' CATV group, which also saw the general release of product to the market on February 1st and the naming of five CATV manufacturers' representative firms and two authorized distributors.

Charles, which acquired the Corning Cable Systems molded pedestal and housing product line of Louvered and Non-Louvered CATV Enclosures in October of 2008, moved production to its Missouri-based manufacturing facility and began shipping product in February of 2009. The formation of a national sales team, led by O'Brien, has allowed Charles to quickly bring product to market and begin supporting deployment initiatives of former Corning CATV pedestal and housing customers.

O'Brien joins Charles with over ten years of experience in the cable television industry working for such companies as ARNCO Corporation and A-D Technologies. He has held executive sales management positions and worked with such providers as Comcast, Time Warner, Charter Communications, and others to help set their strategies for building and upgrading their outside plant network infrastructure. O'Brien earned his Bachelor of Science, Business Management degree from Xavier University and resides in Avon Lake, Ohio.

Charles Industries has also reached agreements with five manufacturers' representative firms to market and support Charles' CATV product portfolio throughout North America. MicroSat, Inc. of Marietta, GA; Communications Supply Group of Shakopee, MN; dB Communications of Collegeville, PA; ComTechnology Sales Corporation of Dallas, TX; and JFC Solutions of Burnaby, British Columbia (Canada) will provide CATV customer/partners with their expertise in network planning, customer service, and pre- and post-sale support in representing Charles' outside plant solutions. In addition, Charles has named Power & Telephone Supply Company (Power & Tel) and TVC Communications as authorized distributors of its CATV product line.

Charles offers three series of non-metallic CATV Enclosures, including above-grade non-louvered vertical pedestals (NLVP), louvered vertical pedestals (LVP) and louvered low-profile housings (LLPH). These versatile outside plant enclosures are designed to protect taps, splitters, line extenders, amplifiers and other coaxial and fiber optic equipment in all types of environmental conditions. More information about Charles CATV Enclosures can be found on the company's website at www.charlesindustries.com/main/catv.html.

About Charles Industries, Ltd.

2009 marks Charles Industries' 41st year as a privately held, diversified manufacturing and technology company serving telecommunications, CATV, marine and industrial markets. Founded in 1968, the company is ISO 9001:2000 and TL 9000, headquartered in Rolling Meadows, Illinois with four U.S.-based manufacturing centers. For further information, please visit www.charlesindustries.com or call (847) 806-6300.

Contact Information: For more information: Brad Wackerlin Charles Industries, Ltd. (847) 258-8458 bwackerl@charlesindustries.com