Third Quarter Net Income Up 40 Percent

BUFFALO, NEW YORK (October 18, 1999) - Gibraltar (Nasdaq: ROCK) today reported record sales and earnings for the quarter and nine months ended September 30, 1999. The Company also said its gross profit margin exceeded 20 percent for the second consecutive quarter.

Sales in the third quarter of 1999 were $162.9 million, an increase of seven percent from $152.6 million in the third quarter of 1998. For the first nine months of the year, sales were $467.0 million in 1999, up 13 percent from $413.9 million in 1998.

Net income in the third quarter of 1999 increased by 40 percent to $7.2 million, versus $5.1 million in the third quarter of 1998. Earnings per fully diluted share were $.56 in the third quarter of 1999, up 37 percent from $.41 in the third quarter of 1998. For the first nine months of the year, net income grew by 30 percent to $19.5 million in 1999, compared to $15.0 million in the first nine months of 1998. Earnings per fully diluted share were $1.52 in the first nine months of 1999, an increase of 28 percent from $1.19 in the first nine months of 1998.

"This was another outstanding quarter for our company," said Brian J. Lipke, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "We were pleased with the performance of our 1998 acquisitions. We generated steady growth at our existing operations. We successfully completed two immediately accretive acquisitions (Weather Guard Building Products on July 1 and Hi-Temp Incorporated on August 1). And we made continued progress in our efforts to bolster our margins.

"Particularly noteworthy were our strong and growing sales of manufactured end products, which today account for approximately 45 percent of our total sales compared to 14 percent of total sales in 1993. (Note: The second and third quarters are historically the strongest periods for the sale of these products.)

"We expect to generate record sales and earnings in 1999 - which will be our eighth straight year of sales and earnings growth - and we are well positioned to surpass our goal of 20 percent annual earnings growth this year," said Mr. Lipke.

"Looking ahead to next year, we see many of the factors that have fueled our growth continuing. Demand trends in our major businesses, including automotive and building products, are strong. We are beginning to capture many of the synergies available to us in our growing family of companies, and we have identified many other opportunities in that area. And our pipeline of potential acquisitions has never been fuller," said Mr. Lipke.

Gibraltar has made three immediately accretive acquisitions thus far in 1999. The Company acquired a heat-treating facility in Arden, North Carolina, in April, which now operates as part of Carolina Commercial Heat Treating. In July, Gibraltar acquired Weather Guard Building Products, a manufacturer and distributor of a full line of metal building products for industrial, residential, and commercial applications, which is located in Denver, Colorado. On August 1, the Company acquired Hi-Temp Incorporated, one of the leading commercial heat treaters in the Midwest, with four facilities in Illinois and Indiana.

"A major priority at Gibraltar this year has been to intensify the focus of every part of our company on improving our return on investment. We've done that by maximizing asset utilization, divesting operations that did not meet our return targets, and more fully utilizing the capacity in all of our facilities," said Mr. Lipke.

Information contained in this release, other than historical information, should be considered forward-looking, and may be subject to a number of risk factors, including: the impact of changing steel prices on the Company's results of operations; changing demand for the Company's products; the impact of the Year 2000 issue; and changes in interest or tax rates.

Gibraltar is a growth-oriented company, with expanding operations in the building and construction products, metal processing, and commercial heat-treating markets. The Company serves approximately 9,000 customers in a variety of industries. It has approximately 3,100 employees and operates 48 facilities in 19 states and Mexico.