LECO

Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc.

The Lincoln Electric Company began operations in 1895 and was incorporated under the laws of the State of Ohio in 1906. During 1998, The Lincoln Electric Company reorganized into a holding company structure, and Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. became the publicly-held parent of Lincoln Electric subsidiaries worldwide, including The Lincoln Electric Company.

The Company is a broad-line manufacturer and reseller of welding and cutting products. Welding products include arc welding power sources, wire feeding systems, robotic welding packages, fume extraction equipment, consumable electrodes and fluxes. The Company’s welding product offering also includes regulators and torches used in oxy-fuel welding and cutting. In addition, the Company has a leading global position in the brazing and soldering alloys market.

The arc welding power sources and wire feeding systems manufactured by the Company range in technology from basic units used for light manufacturing and maintenance to highly sophisticated robotic applications for high production welding and fabrication. Three primary types of arc welding electrodes are produced: (1) coated manual or stick electrodes, (2) solid electrodes produced in coil, reel or drum forms for continuous feeding in mechanized welding, and (3) cored electrodes produced in coil form for continuous feeding in mechanized welding.

The Company has wholly-owned subsidiaries or joint venture manufacturing facilities located in the United States, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, People’s Republic of China, Poland, Portugal, Turkey, United Kingdom and Venezuela. Nearly all of the above facilities are ISO 9001 certified.

During the fourth quarter of 2009, the Company realigned its business units into five operating segments to enhance the utilization of the Company’s worldwide resources and global sourcing initiatives. The operating segments consist of North America Welding, Europe Welding, Asia Pacific Welding, South America Welding and The Harris Products Group. The North America Welding segment includes welding operations in the United States, Canada and Mexico. The other three welding segments include welding operations in Europe, Asia Pacific and South America, respectively. The fifth segment, The Harris Products Group, includes the Company’s global cutting, soldering and brazing businesses as well as the retail business in the United States. See Note 3 to the Company’s Consolidated Financial Statements for segment and geographic area information.

Customers

The Company’s products are sold in both domestic and international markets. In North America, products are sold principally through industrial distributors, retailers and also directly to users of welding products. Outside of North America, the Company has an international sales organization comprised of Company employees and agents who sell products from the Company’s various manufacturing sites to distributors and product users.

The Company’s major end-user markets include: general metal fabrication, power generation and process industry,
structural steel construction (buildings and bridges), heavy equipment fabrication (farming, mining and rail), shipbuilding, automotive, pipe mills and pipelines, and offshore oil and gas exploration and extraction. The Company is not dependent on a single customer or a few customers. The loss of any one customer would not have a material adverse effect on its business. The Company’s business is not seasonal.