Tanfield Regulatory News (TAN)

23 Apr 2007 07:01

Tanfield Group PLC23 April 2007 23 April 2007 The Tanfield Group Plc ("Tanfield" or "the Group") LAUNCH OF EDISON ELECTRIC ZERO EMISSION VAN & NEW CONTRACT WINS Tanfield, the leading manufacturer of zero emission electric vehicles and aerialwork platforms, is pleased to announce the successful launch of its Edison zeroemission electric van. Tanfield has today also secured its first contracts forinitial orders of Edison with Sainbury's, TNT, CEVA Logistics and Scottish &Southern Energy. J Sainsbury Plc ("Sainsbury's"), a leading UK retailer, has ordered an initialeight Edison electric vans for its Sainsbury's Online home shopping deliveryfleet. Sainsbury's aims to switch 20% of its urban delivery fleet to electricvehicles by September 2008 and its entire urban home shopping fleet by 2010. The order follows a year-long trial by Sainsbury's of the Faraday zero emissionelectric vehicle, a larger van based on a different chassis and also produced byTanfield's trading division, Smith Electric Vehicles. Sainsbury's Onlinedeployed the Faraday in home shopping delivery applications in Central London. The Edison electric van utilises a Ford Transit Body shell, housing Tanfield'shigher function electric vehicle technology. It has a restricted top speed of50mph and a range of up to 150 miles on one battery charge. Tanfield has signeda supply agreement with Ford that will see Smith Electric Vehicles convert aninitial 100 Ford Transit Body shells to battery-powered Edison vans. Tanfield has received further confirmed orders for Edison from parcel andlogistics companies TNT Express and CEVA Logistics (formerly TNT Logistics), whohave both already deployed Tanfield's Newton 7.5t electric vehicle. Scottish & Southern Energy, one of the UK's largest energy companies, has alsoordered the Edison for use in its fleet of 6,000 commercial vehicles. Simon Skeet, Operations Manager for Sainsbury's Online, said: "Thorough testing during the trial has given us a unique insight into thevehicle's capabilities and has demonstrated that we can potentially takehundreds of conventional vans out of our urban delivery fleet. Our fleet will start small but the long term plans mean that by 2010, all ourdelivery vans operating in high areas of 'delivery density', such as towns andcities, will be battery powered. We look forward to working closely with SmithElectric Vehicles with a view to fulfilling this requirement." Darren Kell, Chief Executive of The Tanfield Group Plc, said: "Edison's urban performance capabilities have exceeded our own expectations andthose of our customers. This initial order and further commitment by Sainsbury's demonstrates the levelof belief and confidence held by major fleet operators in our zero emissionvehicles. The Ford Transit is the most popular and widely used van in its category,further enhancing driver acceptability of our vehicles. Coupled with Edison'sunique performance capabilities, we are confident that the vehicle will generatefurther volume orders." Smith Electric Vehicles will officially unveil Edison at the Commercial VehicleShow, Europe's largest exhibition of commercial vehicles. The CV Show takesplace in Birmingham NEC from Tuesday 24th April to Thursday 26th April, 2007. website: www.tanfieldgroup.co.uk For further information: The Tanfield Group Plc Tel: +44 (0)845 1557 755 Darren Kell, Chief Executive dan.jenkins@tanfieldgroup.com Charles Brooks, Finance Director Fishburn Hedges Tel: +44(0)20 7839 4321 Morgan Bone Mob: +44(0) 7767 622 967 James Benjamin Mob: +44(0) 7747 113 930 tanfield@fishburn-hedges.co.uk St. Helen's Capital plc Tel: +44 (0)20 7628 5582 Ruari McGirr Cenkos Securities plc Tel: +44(0)20 7397 8900 Nicholas Wells Notes to editorsThe Tanfield Group Plc is the world's leading developer and manufacturer of road-going commercial electric vehicles and aerial work platforms. Tanfield is headquartered in Newcastle with operations in the USA and Japan. It has two main divisions: Smith Electric Vehicles, was founded in 1920 and acquired by Tanfield in October2004. Since its acquisition, Smith is developing into a world leader in newtechnology electric vans and trucks with greatly enhanced performance, speed andrange capabilities. This makes them attractive for all fleet operators in largetowns, cities and closed industrial environment. For the first time, these fleetoperators have an economically viable, zero emission alternatives to usingdiesel vans and trucks. Smith has an unrivalled UK-wide service and supportnetwork, which already maintains over 5,000 vehicles for major fleet operators.This core element of the business is beginning to fulfil its potential in termsof addressing the requirements of large urban fleet operators, who want toreduce their operational costs and more importantly, greatly reduce their carbonfootprint. Smith's airport offering is complemented by two specialist airportvehicle sub-divisions; Jumbotugs and Norquip. UpRight Powered Access, is firmly established as the UK's biggest manufacturerof self-propelled aerial work platforms (such as "cherry-pickers", "scissorlifts", "trailer mounts", etc) and UpRight is globally one of the industry'sstrongest aerial lift brands in what is a $7bn market. UpRight has assemblyfacilities in the UK and USA, plus a wholly-owned subsidiary in Japan. Productsare sold through a strong global network of over 150 independent, full-servicedistributors across Europe, North America, Middle East and Asia-Pacific regions.Tanfield has been successful in extending the UpRight product range andachieving significant increases in average weekly order intake, boosted in partby working at height regulations. - ENDS - This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange