LEWISTON – the U.S. Small Business Administration has named WahlcoMetroflex, a global supplier of engineered products for isolating and controlling gas flows in industrial applications, as Maine’s 2007 Small Business Exporter of the Year. An award was presented at the SBA celebration dinner recently.

Headquartered in Lewiston, the company is a leader in the design, manufacture, installation and service of dampers, joints, and bypass diverters used in power plants, refineries, pulp and paper mills and chemical plants around the world. The company exports approximately 25 percent of sales.

The 35-year-old company was purchased by its present management team, John Powell, president/CEO, John Bader, CFO, Steven Boulet, director of administration, Michael Brousseau, contract and service manager, Scott Hall, product manager, and Roger Poulin, director of operations, in 2001.

With the support of the Finance Authority of Maine, the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments, Coastal Enterprises Inc., and the Lewiston-Auburn Economic Growth Council, the six-member management team was able to purchase the company, which employs 88.

WahlcoMetroflex owns and operates a 50,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in the Lewiston Industrial Park.