Kentwool Receives Uster’s First US Quality Certification

Greenville-based wool spinner Kentwool has become the first company in the Western Hemisphere to
receive Usterized quality certification from Uster Technologies AG, a Switzerland-based
manufacturer of online and laboratory textile-quality-monitoring systems. Kentwool, a 164-year-old
company that supplies superfine wool yarn to high-end apparel brands such as Italy-based Loro Piana
S.p.A. and Irvine, Calif.-based St. John Knits Inc., is one of approximately 45 companies in 13
countries worldwide to have received the certification.

Uster — which maintains technology centers in Switzerland, the United States and China; and
operates six service centers worldwide, including two in the United States — awarded the
certification following a two-month audit process conducted at Kentwool’s 100,000-square-foot
manufacturing facility in Pickens, S.C. The audit covered manufacturing and operational categories
including Kentwool’s quality management system, which demonstrated consistent, sustainable
capability to test yarn quality.

“Achieving this unique quality certification from the most respected textile quality firm on
the planet, coupled with our ability to produce the finest wool yarn in North America, confirms we
are on track to achieve our vision of becoming the premier wool innovation and manufacturing
company in the world,” said Mark Kent, president and CEO, Kentwool.

January 8, 2008

SHARE