L. W. Allen LLC is excited to announce that it has been purchased by SJE Inc. (SJE), a leading controls technology company headquartered in Detroit Lakes, Minn. Based in Madison, Wisc., L. W. Allen and its brand Altronex have a strong tradition of supplying high quality engineered control systems to the municipal wastewater segment in the upper Midwest. Both companies’ strong commitments to customer service align to make this deal advantageous for their customers. “We are excited to join the SJE family. L. W. Allen/Altronex is looking forward to leveraging the resources of the partnership over the years to come. This evolution will definitely enhance our already strong customer service model and allow us to grow as a company to provide more offerings and even better response to customers throughout the region,” said Jim Cook, President & Pump Systems General Manager of L.W. Allen. With approximately 45 employees, L. W. Allen is a significant addition to SJE’s Engineered Products team. The purchase leverages L. W. Allen/Altronex’s control systems expertise and market share in the region to put both companies in a favorable position for growth. In addition to L. W. Allen’s headquarters in Madison, SJE has six locations in the United States and one in Suzhou, China. “When we first met the team at L. W. Allen, it just seemed to be a natural fit with SJE,” said Dave Thomas, President and CEO of SJE. “By leveraging our expertise across multiple locations, we will offer the L. W. Allen customers expanded capacity and additional resources to solve their business requirements.” L.W. Allen LLC L.W. ALLEN serves water and wastewater facilities in Wisconsin and the surrounding states with two divisions. L.W. Allen is a factory-authorized distributor for several leading brands of pumps, motors, slide gates and complete pump stations and accessories. Altronex designs, manufacturers and services state-of-the art controls systems. As a full-service integrator, Altronex can provide custom solutions including SCADA, telemetry, motor control and instrumentation needs. www.lwallen.com SJE Inc. SJE was founded in 1975. Over 45 years later, SJE has grown into a leading controls technology company throughout the United States and Canada, as well as into global markets. SJE is comprised of well-respected brands — CSI Controls, PRIMEX, SJE Rhombus — all known for their innovation and quality. With locations throughout the United States and Asia, SJE offers a wide variety of control products for residential, commercial, municipal and industrial markets. SJE represents the most reliable integration of engineering and manufacturing capabilities in the industry. www.sjeinc.com

SJE, a leading manufacturer of control solutions for the water and wastewater industry, has sold a majority equity interest to Audax Private Equity (“Audax”). The investment from Audax comes as SJE aims for continued growth and expansion within the controls industry. Founder, Steve Johnston, started S. J. Electro Systems in 1975 after creating the original version of the Tank Alert alarm in his garage. In 1987, Steve decided he wanted to pass the company on to his employees by establishing an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (“ESOP”), allowing employees to share in the successes that they were helping to create. “For a highly successful employee-owned company, the timing was right for us to transition ownership to ensure the best return for our employees,” said Dave Thomas, President and CEO of SJE. “We had a tremendous opportunity to make the retirement benefit of the ESOP an immediate reality for our team. Following the investment from Audax, we will continue to operate as we have historically, and remain committed to our core values of unity, humility, agility, drive, and ownership.” Over the past 45 years, SJE has grown significantly, bringing a number of innovative products to the market. SJE currently has seven locations worldwide and nearly 500 employees. In 2020, a year of a global pandemic, SJE had a record year in both sales and profitability. “SJE is an amazing success story. From our humble beginnings, we have emerged as a leader in our industry,” continued Thomas. “Study our history, and you’ll see our success derives from a culture that has always driven growth. Now we have the financial resources to make the capital improvements and acquisitions necessary to expand on our position in the industry,” concluded Thomas. SJE will look to benefit from the strategic and financial resources Audax brings to their portfolio companies. These resources will help drive investments in the business, support growth strategy, and enable SJE to continue pursuing acquisitions. “Audax supports strong leadership teams to build companies. We focus on buying and then building market-leading companies that are poised for growth,” said Ryan Bruehlmann, Managing Director of Audax Private Equity. “We see tremendous value in SJE’s culture of teamwork, commitment to purpose and values, and strong desire to succeed.” Learn more about SJE at www.sjeinc.com. About SJE Inc. SJE was founded in 1975 by Steve Johnston. Today, over 45 years later, SJE has grown into a leading controls technology company throughout the United States and Canada, as well as into global markets. SJE is comprised of well-respected brands — CSI Controls, PRIMEX, SJE Rhombus — all known for their innovation and quality. With locations throughout the United States and Asia, SJE offers a wide variety of control products for residential, commercial, municipal and industrial markets. From control panels utilizing embedded circuit board technology, to complete control and monitoring systems designed and built to individual specifications, SJE represents the most reliable integration of engineering and manufacturing capabilities in the industry. About Audax Private Equity Audax Group is a leading alternative investment manager with offices in Boston, New York, and San Francisco. Since its founding in 1999, the firm has raised over $27 billion in capital across its Private Equity and Private Debt businesses. Audax Private Equity has invested over $6 billion in more than 135 platforms and over 950 add-on companies, and is currently investing out of its $3.5 billion, sixth private equity fund. Through its disciplined Buy & Build approach, Audax seeks to help platform companies execute add-on acquisitions that fuel revenue growth, optimize operations, and significantly increase equity value. With more than 250 employees and over 100 investment professionals, the firm is a leading capital partner for North American middle market companies. For more information, visit the Audax Private Equity website: http://www.audaxprivateequity.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

Please join is in welcoming our newest regional sales manager, Pino Alonzi, who will now cover all of Canada! Learn more about him below. Pino AlonziRegional Sales Manager for CanadaLocated in Toronto, Ontario Pino has been in the industry for over 20 years and has built name recognition in the Ontario market specifically. He worked with wholesalers from 2009 to 2013, then at a rep agency. He has supported the SJE Rhombus brand for the last 4.5 years and worked on major projects in the Toronto area He is passionate about providing solutions to end users and resolving problems so everyone is happy with the results. He enjoys project challenges, problem solving and being in the field. When he’s not working, Pino likes sports, nature walks, exploring new places and cycling. You can contact him at pino.alonzi@sjeinc.com. Thanks!

  SJE has been named a Top Workplace in Minnesota by the Star Tribune. Top Workplaces recognizes the most progressive companies in Minnesota based on employee opinions measuring engagement, organizational health and satisfaction. While SJE scored high enough to meet the national benchmark as a Top Workplace, it did not rank in the top 150. “I am happy for our employee-owners,” said Vice President of Human Resources Natasha Nodsle. “It is nice to be recognized and be able to showcase the great work environment, benefits and culture SJE has.” SJE is a 100% employee owned manufacturing company based out of Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. With locations around the U.S. and China, SJE has become a global leader in water and wastewater controls solutions. About 265 employee owners work at the three locations in Minnesota. SJE is an active member of the ESOP Association’s Minnesota Dakotas Chapter and the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce. In 2017, it was awarded the National Employee Owned Company of the Year. “Employees can be who they want to be,” said Nodsle. “If they want to be a volunteer, donate to a charity, earn a degree, learn a different job, take time to bond with a new baby, or have time off to go on that dream vacation, SJE has programs to support each of these and more.” Rankings were composite scores calculated purely on the basis of employee responses. A complete list of those selected is available at StarTribune.com/topworkplaces2020.

**Updated as of May 8, 2020** In early March, as the COVID-19 pandemic started to impact the US, SJE developed and implemented action plans to protect our team members, their families, and their communities across our locations in multiple states.  We moved team members to work from home as appropriate, implemented social distancing across all locations, acquired PPE and implemented scheduled sanitizing of work cells and common areas.  We entered into an agreement with a national cleaning service to be onsite to sanitize within 24 hours, if needed.  We provided all of our team members with daily updates that included FAQs, procedures, and examples of how SJE would handle various situations.  We followed guidelines from the CDC, OSHA, local and state health authorities.  Our procedures met or exceeded those guidelines. This week SJE had our first confirmed case in one of our Minnesota locations.  We followed our procedures by isolating this individual at home to recover.  We identified those team members that had first person exposure and they went home to self-quarantine.  They were encouraged to get tested and inform us of those results when available.  We immediately closed the appropriate work cells and had our cleaning service onsite to deep clean and sanitize contacted areas. These areas re-opened for production within 24-hours. We realize that closing a work cell to sanitize after a confirmed case may slow some product shipments to our customers, but we will try to minimize any potential delays. Thank you for being a valued business partner. **Updated as of March 25, 2020** On behalf of the nearly 400 employee owners of SJE, we want to share with you the steps we have taken as a result of the current COVID-19 situation.  This is an unprecedented time for us and safety of our employee owners, our communities and our customers is our highest priority. Because we are a global company with facilities located throughout the United States and in China, we are diligently monitoring this situation through credible sources such as the CDC www.cdc.gov and WHO (www.who.org), as well through state and local authorities. We are taking extra precautions to protect our employee owners.  We are encouraging team members to follow best hygiene practices, like frequent hand washing, social distancing and staying home if they are sick or have been exposed to those who may have the virus.  Employees are working remotely if their position allows.  We have also put a hold on all business travel until further notice. While we have always taken the cleanliness of our facilities seriously, we know this is more important than ever. Aligned with the recommended guidelines from health authorities, we are implementing additional measures to clean and disinfect our locations. SJE has US manufacturing facilities in California, Florida, Minnesota and Ohio.  Recently several states, including California, Ohio and Minnesota, announced executive “Shelter-In-Place” or “Stay-Home” orders.  These orders provide an exception for qualified Essential Businesses that meet certain criteria and therefore can remain fully operational. We have received numerous documented requests from our customers across the United States that have been deemed Essential Businesses, asking SJE to continue to supply the products and services they need to support critical water/wastewater infrastructure. Accordingly, SJE is an essential business and will continue to operate our manufacturing facilities subject to our ongoing monitoring and contingency planning around COVID-19 in accordance with CDC and state and local health guidelines.   We are working closely with our suppliers to define our material delivery requirements to meet the needs of our customers. SJE provides a wide range of technologically advanced solutions and services across North America.  We provide control panels, SCADA/remote monitoring, and on-site service to municipalities to support Wastewater Treatment facilities.  SJE supports municipalities across the United States that rely on our services and products to maintain critical infrastructure demands. We manufacture Float Switches, Alarms and Control Systems for residential applications; sump pumps to prevent homes from spring flooding and septic systems to ensure home sewage is processed safely according to city, township, and county regulations.  We sell our products across North America through Plumbing Supply wholesalers that sell our products to plumbers and on-site installers. We supply Embedded Controls to key OEMs that support our first responders and medical device manufacturers that provide the necessary equipment in the testing and developing a vaccine for COVID-19. This critical situation is very fluid. We are working hard to stay informed and will adhere to all governmental mandates.