SIXH.L Regulatory News (SIXH)

6 Sep 2006 12:00

600 Group PLC06 September 2006 06 September 2006 The 600 Group PLC CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT TO THE 2006 AGM As anticipated in the announcement of the Group's preliminary results in June,our UK and USA machine tool markets continued the positive trends seen at theend of last year while western European markets showed some signs of recovery. The Group's total underlying order intake in the first five periods wassignificantly up on last year, with improvements in most geographic regions. Ouroutstanding order book is now substantially higher than last year dueprincipally to the major contracts to supply Mitsui Seiki machines to the UKaerospace industry scheduled for delivery in the second half of the year. Since the year-end, our efforts have continued to be focussed on the executionof the strategic plan outlined by Andrew Dick in our Annual Report. Notableevents during the last few months include:- Machine Tools - the appointment of a new head of our North American machine tool operations who joined us at the end of June - the appointment of a new General Manager for our European machine tool operations who will join us next January - the implementation of an improved sales and marketing plan for machine tools in the UK - the establishment of additional sub-contract capacity for lathes, with deliveries due towards the end of the year Laser Marking - the appointment of a high calibre sales and marketing Vice President for the US to spearhead our aggressive growth strategy - the establishment of an additional sales office in the USA for Electrox laser markers - the launch of a new generation of fibre lasers at the major bi-annual machine tool fair in Chicago During the second half of the year, we shall be continuing the development andimplementation of our new international sales and marketing initiatives, coupledwith the introduction of new and updated laser markers and lathes. I would now like to spend a few minutes to tell you about Board changes, bothactual and potential. Our Group Finance Director, John Fussey, will be retiring on 20 December of thisyear after 13 years with the Group. On behalf of the board I would like toexpress my thanks for John's excellent contribution and support over the yearsand wish him well for his retirement. I am pleased also to announce that Martyn Wakeman will be joining the board on 2 October to take over John's duties when he retires. Martyn is an FCA and wasmost recently the Chief Financial Officer and Deputy Managing Director of AssaAbloy (UK) Limited, the British subsidiary of the Swedish quoted securitycompany. Prior to that role Martyn had senior financial and operational roleswith Williams PLC and Teleflex Incorporated, the US quoted corporation operatingin the aerospace, medical and automotive markets. I have now been Chairman for almost 14 years and it had been my intention tostand down some time ago. However, I wanted to ensure that there was a smoothtransition from Tony Sweeten to Andrew Dick as Group Chief Executive. I amhappy to say that this has now been accomplished and therefore I have asked myfellow directors to start the process of appointing my successor with theintention that I should retire from the board on the appointment of my successoras Chairman. -ENDS- This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange