Environmental Elements

Environmental Elements Corp., a Baltimore maker of pollution-control devices, has won a $19 million contract to design and construct a gigantic air filter for a Wisconsin power company.The filter will be installed at Wisconsin Electric Power Co.'s Presque Isle Power Plant, located north of Marquette, Mich.E. H. Verdery, chairman and chief executive officer of Environmental Elements, said there is a "good probability" that the deal will lead to expansion and new hiring for the 52-year-old firm, though he said it was too early to give details.

Henry David Thoreau may never have been known for his business acumen, but his admonition to "simplify, simplify" is a -- strategy that Baltimore-based Environmental Elements Inc. intends to follow.Since 1983, the company has trimmed its diverse environmental services business to a single area: supplying air pollution control devices to utilities and industries.The strategy has paid off. The company expects its revenues to increase from $56 million last year to $100 million this year.In July, the company had its first public stock offering, a move that it hopes will put it in position to win lucrative contracts from utility companies.

Environmental Elements Corp., a Baltimore-based supplier of industrial air pollution control systems, blamed the harsh winter weather and unstable marketing conditions for a nearly 42 percent drop in fourth-quarter sales resulting in a loss of $437,000.For the quarter ended March 31, Environmental Elements posted sales of $13,604,000, compared with $23,330,000 in the comparable period last year. The loss for the quarter was equal to 6 cents a share, compared with net income of $377,000, or 5 cents a share, in the final three months of the company's fiscal 1995.

Shares of Environmental Elements Corp. jumped 25 percent on nine times their normal trading volume yesterday after the company announced a four-year contract worth more than $100 million, its largest ever.The Baltimore-based company's shares closed at $3.75, up 75 cents each. Nearly 102,000 shares changed hands, compared with a three-month daily average of 11,092."This will definitely add to earnings over the next few years," said analyst David D. Weaver, who follows the company for Legg Mason Wood Walker Inc. in Baltimore.

After reducing its costs and increasing sales, Environmental Elements Corp. said yesterday that it ended its second quarter in the black, earning $28,000, or 0 cents a share, compared with a loss of $642,000, or 9 cents a share, in the second quarter of 1996.The earnings met analysts' expectations and were the Baltimore-based company's third quarter of profitability after four years with only two quarters in the black.The supplier of air pollution devices said its power and municipal solid waste customers were growing, although its industrial market remained soft.

Environmental Elements Corp., the Baltimore-based maker of air pollution-control devices, said it has won its second contract as a result of new federal regulations tightening hazardous-emissions standards in the paper industry. The company said it won a $15 million contract from a North American pulp and paper company to do environmental cleanup work at four paper mills in the Southeast. Environment Elements officials didn't identify the client. It is the second contract the company has secured as a result of companies' needing to meet tougher standards for reducing hazardous air pollutant emissions.

Environmental Elements Corp. said yesterday that it ended its third quarter in the black - the first profitable quarter the company has had since the third period a year ago. The Baltimore-based maker of pollution-control devices had net income of $17,000 on sales of $14.8 million for the three months that ended Dec. 31. That compares with a profit of $85,000 on sales of $13.9 million in the year-ago period. The company also announced that its president, John L. Sams, will also hold the title of chief executive officer.

Environmental Elements Corp., a Baltimore-based maker of pollution-control equipment, is considering a sale or merger, the company announced yesterday. The company has hired Legg Mason Wood Walker Inc. as its financial adviser to assist the company's "evaluation of strategic alternatives," it said in a statement. No one at the company or Legg Mason was available for comment yesterday. Last month, Environmental Elements reported that profit fell 86 percent in its second quarter, which ended Sept.

Environmental Elements Corp., a Baltimore air pollution control equipment maker hit by plunging sales, said yesterday that its top executive had departed and that 20 workers, or 13 percent of its work force, are being cut. John L. Sams resigned as the company's president, chief executive officer and board member effective immediately, the company announced in a statement. Chief Financial Officer Lawrence Rychlak was named interim president, the statement said. The statement said the company would take a charge of $140,000 in the current quarter for severance and other costs.