Lawson Elects New Sales and Marketing Executive

DES PLAINES, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 20, 2008--Lawson Products, Inc. (Nasdaq:LAWS) announced today the election of Harry Dochelli, 48, as Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing, effective April 7. Mr. Dochelli will provide senior leadership to the sales and marketing organizations for the Company. Most recently, he served as Executive VP, North America Contract Sales for OfficeMax Incorporated, based in Naperville, IL.

"Harry Dochelli brings a tremendous depth of skill and expertise to this role," said Thomas J. Neri, President and CEO of Lawson. "His experience leading multi-channel sales forces (field, internal, and National Accounts representatives) and managing both sales and operations organizations will position us to grow market share and sales among targeted industries and markets."

As Executive VP, North America Contract Sales for OfficeMax Incorporated, Mr. Dochelli had Profit & Loss responsibility for U.S. and Canadian operations, as well as a sales force of more than 1,200 representatives. Collectively, these operations represented more than $4 billion in revenue. Prior to that he was Executive VP, U.S. Contract Sales.

"The opportunity to join Lawson's executive team as it seeks to grow and strengthen the business greatly appeals to me," said Mr. Dochelli. "I'm eager to leverage the company's core strengths and help build new capabilities to better serve customers and increase satisfaction, sales, and market share."

Lawson Products, headquartered in Des Plaines, IL, is an international leader in selling and distributing services, systems, and products to the industrial, commercial, and institutional maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) market. The company also manufacturers, sells, and distributes production and specialized component parts, and provides services and systems to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

This release contains certain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. The terms "may," "should," "could," "anticipate," "believe," "continues," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "objective," "plan," "potential," "project" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Such statements speak only as of the date of the news release and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's control, which could cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations. These risks include, but are not limited to the impact of governmental investigations, such as the ongoing investigation by U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois; excess and obsolete inventory; disruptions of the Company's information systems; risks of rescheduled or cancelled orders; increases in commodity prices; the influence of controlling stockholders; competition and competitive pricing pressures; the effect of general economic conditions and market conditions in the markets and industries the Company serves; the risks of war, terrorism, and similar hostilities; and, all of the factors discussed in the Company's "Risk Factors" set forth in its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any such factors or to publicly announce the results of any revisions to any forward-looking statements contained herein whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

CONTACT: Lawson Products, Inc.
Neil E. Jenkins, 847-827-9666 x2208

SOURCE: Lawson Products, Inc.