FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Hillman Group Announces Distribution Agreement With Midwest Acorn Nut Co.

CINCINNATI, OHIO - April 23, 2004 - The Hillman Group has announced that they will partner with Midwest Acorn Nut Co. (Troy, MI) to distribute the Midwest Cy-Chrome line of Chrome fasteners. The move gives Hillman the right to distribute over 900 sku’s of Chrome products to their retail customer base. The sku list is among the most comprehensive in the retail market.

Hillman is now able to call on all current Midwest Acorn retail customers, and will be responsible for all merchandising, signage, and POP items.

Hillman is a leading manufacturer of key making equipment and a distributor of key blanks, fasteners, signage, and other small hardware components and operates in multiple channels of the retail marketplace.

Midwest Acorn Nut Co. is an ISO 9001:2000 Registered company that currently supplies its products to many highly recognizable manufacturers of Motorcycles, among others, throughout the world.

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Please Direct Inquiries To:

Dennis Blake, Vice-President/Marketing/The Hillman Group Steve Ruwe, Marketing Services Manager/The Hillman Group