All of the capital expenditures for 1998 and 1997 were funded from the Company's cash flow from operations. Additions to property, plant, and equipment in 1999 are expected to approximate 1998 capital expenditures and are also planned to be funded from the Company's cash flow from operations. The Company recognizes the potential business impacts related to the Year 2000 issue. The Company began to address this issue in 1995 and believes it has an effective program in place to resolve Year 2000 issues in a timely manner. The Company has completed the assessment of its business critical systems and processes, and is essentially finished with the remediation of these business critical systems, including those involving suppliers, customers and other business partners.
Work continues on the remaining systems and processes, both internal and external.
Implementing our plan, as it now stands, will allow the Company to be fully ready by December 31, 1999. The Company has certain pre-existing contingency arrangements and has established processes for creating other business critical contingency plans so that operations are not impeded by the millennium change. Appropriate contingency plans to deal with issues created by third parties, those over whom the Company has little or no control, will also be developed. Given the complexity of the Year 2000 issue, failure by the Company or its external business partners to achieve readiness could adversely affect the Company's operations. The Company believes that its readiness program, including the contingency plans, will minimize the effect of any temporary disruptions in the Company's operations that may occur.