Avon Protection Regulatory News (AVON)

23 Jan 2008 10:30

Avon Rubber PLC23 January 2008 Embargoed for 10.30 a.m. 23 January 2008 Avon Rubber p.l.c. ("the Group") AGM Statement At the Annual General Meeting to be held today the Chairman, The Rt. Hon. SirRichard Needham, will make the following statement to shareholders: "At the time of our preliminary statement at the end of November 2007, we saidthat the Group had reached a number of significant milestones. We had announcedthat the full rate production decision had been made on our new militaryrespirator and that we had received NFPA certification for our newself-contained breathing apparatus product, manufactured at ISI in Georgia. The growth in our Protection and Defence business has been slower than weanticipated. However, we are now agreeing the detail of the multi-year contractfor the new military respirator, which will commence with an annual rate of100,000 units, and expect this order to be confirmed in the very near future. Weanticipate that this will quickly be followed by a requirements order to coveradditional demand for the US military. We have also received a funded development contract from the US Department ofHomeland Security for the new EH15 emergency hood which we believe hassignificant long-term potential. At Avon-ISI, whilst enquiries have remained at a high level, the conversion ofthese to firm orders is taking longer than we anticipated. We are confident thatthis is a timing issue and would expect to see growth at this business in thesecond quarter continuing into the second half of the year. Sales of our dairy products in North America continue at a consistently highlevel. We expect this to remain the case and we have also seen a continuation ofthe growth in sales in our European operations. Avon Engineered Fabrications is in the process of confirming some long-termcontracts for supply of fluid storage tanks and we believe this will give astrong base for growth in this business over the next few years. Overall the Group performance in our first quarter of the financial year hasbeen below expectations. Net debt increased by £2.3million to £12.7million at 31December 2007, with increased inventory relating to the delayed deliveries tothe DoD and a seasonal reduction in payables. We also said in November that we were committed to the sale of our UK Mixingfacility at the earliest opportunity or, if a solution could not be reached, wewould close it. In the absence of any sale of this operation being concluded, weare now starting the process of closure. Whilst the growth in our respiratory protection business has been delayed in thefirst quarter, the levels of enquiries and expected orders give us confidencethat in the next few months we will see the expected enhanced performance forthe Group. The Board remains confident that the work already carried out,together with continued investment in new product development, will lead to aperiod of sustainable and profitable growth for the Group." -Ends- For further enquiries please contact: Avon Rubber p.l.c.Terry Stead, Chief ExecutivePeter Slabbert, Group Finance Director 01225 896870Fiona Stewart, Corporate Communications Executive 01225 896871 Weber Shandwick FinancialRichard Hews, Rachel Martin, Hannah Marwood 020 7067 0700 Arden Partners plcChris Hardie 020 7398 1600 NOTES TO EDITORS:Avon Rubber p.l.c. is an international polymer engineering group adding valuethrough material, manufacturing and industry sector expertise. The Group iscurrently capitalised at approximately £42 million. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange