HUDSON TECHNOLOGIES, INC. REPORTS
FOURTH QUARTER 2000 RESULTS

PEARL RIVER, New York – Hudson Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:HDSN), a leading refrigerant services company specializing in proprietary on-site decontamination services for large comfort and process cooling systems, today announced results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2000. 

Revenues for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2000, were $4,208,000 compared to $2,768,000 for the comparable 1999 period. During the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2000, the Company achieved a gross profit of $1,013,000 compared to $413,000 for the comparable 1999 period. During the fourth quarter of 2000, the Company reported a net loss of $(971,000) and, after Preferred Stock dividends of $127,000, the net loss per common share was $(0.22). This compares to a net loss of $(1,543,000) and, after Preferred Stock dividends of $118,000, a net loss per common share of $(.33) for the comparable 1999 period. 

Revenues for the year ended December 31, 2000, were $15,455,000 compared to $17,909,000 for the comparable 1999 period. For the year ended December 31, 2000, the Company realized a gross profit of $5,058,000 compared to a gross profit of $3,788,000 for the comparable 1999 period. During the year ended December 31, 2000, the Company reported a net loss of $(2,396,000) and, after Preferred Stock dividends of $497,000, the net loss per common share was $(0.57). This compares to a net loss of $(3,955,000) and, after Preferred Stock dividends of $349,000, a net loss per common share of $(0.85) for the comparable 1999 period.

The increase in revenues and gross profit for the three months ended December 31, 2000 was the result of increases in both the revenues and margins from refrigerant sales and RefrigerantSide® Service over the comparable 1999 period. The Company experienced a 40% increase in its RefrigerantSide® Service revenues and a 58% increase in its refrigerant revenues. The increase in the RefrigerantSide® Service revenues was due to the continued development of the Company’s ten depots throughout the United States. The increase in the Company’s refrigerant revenues was due to an enhanced effort to sell refrigerants targeted toward industries and service customers that typically support higher sales prices and gross margins as well as improved pricing conditions for certain refrigerants. The Company’s gross margin increased to 24% for the three months ended December 31, 2000 compared to 15% for the comparable 1999 period.

The decrease in revenues during fiscal year 2000 is attributed to an anticipated decline in lower margin refrigerant sales offset, in part, by a 45% increase in the Company’s RefrigerantSide® Service revenues. The improved refrigerant revenue mix as well as the Company’s emphasis on higher margin revenues from service sales resulted in a 33% gross profit margin for the year ended December 31, 2000 compared to a 21% gross profit margin for the comparable 1999 period. 

Kevin J. Zugibe, the Company’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, stated, “We are very pleased with the results of the fourth quarter and the year ended December 31, 2000. Over the past two years, we have essentially developed a new business offering, RefrigerantSide® Services, designed to take advantage of an estimated $500 million service market. We developed this offering with the goals of capitalizing on a significant growth opportunity, enhancing our profitability and reducing our reliance on the volatile refrigerant sales market. The year 2000 results demonstrate our progress toward achieving these goals, as evidenced by a 45% increase in RefrigerantSide® Services, which contributed to a 34% increase in gross profit and an increase in gross margin over fiscal year 1999. These results were achieved despite a 14% decrease in revenues from last year. ” 

Mr. Zugibe also stated: “The fourth quarter of 2000, historically our weakest quarter, was the Company’s strongest fourth quarter in three years in terms of revenues, gross profit and gross margin. Through the development of our depots and service offerings, we are beginning to mitigate the effects of seasonal refrigerant sales. While we expect volatility in the refrigerant sales market, we continue to develop the nature and breadth of our RefrigerantSide® Services to address new industries and to solve more problems. We believe that the continued development and growth of our RefrigerantSide® Services will enable us to further improve our financial results and deliver long term value for our shareholders.”

About Hudson: Hudson Technologies, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, sells refrigerants and provides services to the commercial and industrial air conditioning and refrigeration markets. The Company’s services include recovery and reclamation of the refrigerants used in commercial air conditioning and refrigeration systems. In addition, Hudson’s proprietary RefrigerantSide® Services provide rapid response to emergencies that occur at a customer’s site, as well as routine scheduled maintenance to enhance operating efficiency. The Company’s RefrigerantSide® Services are designed to increase operating efficiency and energy savings, remove moisture, oils and other contaminants frequently found in the refrigeration circuits of large comfort cooling and process refrigeration systems. These contaminants can be introduced into a system by means of a catastrophic equipment failure, or through less than optimal preventive maintenance that can reduce performance, cause air conditioning system outages and interrupt production. Hudson’s decontamination system removes impurities rapidly and can be utilized while the client’s system continues to function, offering significant savings to customers. This technology has reduced system downtime by as much as 80 percent when compared with conventional repair methods. 


Safe Harbor statement under the Private Securities Litigation Act of 1995: Statements contained herein, which are not historical facts constitute forward-looking statements involve a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to, changes in the markets for refrigerants (including unfavorable market conditions adversely affecting the demand for, and the price of refrigerants), regulatory and economic factors, seasonality, competition, litigation, the nature of supplier or customer arrangements which become available to the Company in the future, adverse weather conditions, possible technological obsolescence of existing products and services, possible reduction in the carrying value of long-lived assets, estimates of the useful life of its assets, potential environmental liability, customer concentration and other risks detailed in the Company’s other periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The words “believe”, “expect”, “anticipate”, “may”, “plan”, “should” and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date the statement was made.

Hudson Technologies, Inc. and subsidiaries

Consolidated Statements of Operations
(unaudited)
(Amounts in thousands, except for share and per share amounts)

                                                                              Three month period           Nine month period

                                                                                  ended December 31,        ended December 31,

Brian Coleman, CFO
Hudson Technologies, Inc.
(845) 368-4990