Tanfield Regulatory News (TAN)

12 Sep 2006 07:02

Tanfield Group PLC12 September 2006 Tanfield Group plc ('Tanfield' or the 'Company') Notification of Interim Results and Trading Update Tanfield will announce its interim results for the six months ending June 30th2006 on Monday September 25th, 2006. The Company is also pleased to give a further trading update on recent successesfor the Group's two key brands, UpRight Powered Access and Smith ElectricVehicles. UpRight Powered Access The Board is delighted to announce that global UpRight sales orders in the pastweek totalled more than £1 million for the first time since it was acquired byTanfield. This follows on the recent success of UpRight Powered Access at a provincialGerman trade show, where the Company secured significant orders forapproximately 100 machines, with a gross sales value of around £1.5 million. The order book remains extremely buoyant. Despite doubling UpRight machineproduction since the acquisition, order intake continues to outstrip productoutput. The Group is making good progress in its transferral of UpRight machine assemblyfrom Ireland to a 250,000sq ft flagship manufacturing facility near Newcastleupon Tyne, with the first assembly line presently being installed. The Companyexpects to ship the first products from this assembly line by the end ofSeptember 2006. Smith Electric Vehicles Enquiry levels for Smith Electric Vehicles' new technology products are at anall-time high and the order book remains buoyant. The Company is presently innegotiations with most large fleet operators. The Board of Directors is pleased to announce that it has also agreed terms inprinciple with a government body, which will fund a significantly sized fleet ofdemonstration vehicles. This fleet will be used to demonstrate the viability ofelectric vehicles in UK city centres and promote their use to commercial fleetoperators, as a tool for positive impact on carbon dioxide emissions. Smith Electrical Vehicles will officially unveil Newton, a new technologyelectric 7.5t delivery truck at the Courier and Parcel Despatch Expo 2006 inAmsterdam in October. This is the first of two vehicles built for global parceldelivery and logistics company TNT. This will be followed by the launch of Edison, a new zero emission van. Commenting on these achievements Roy Stanley, Chairman of Tanfield, said: "The continued increase in order intake for UpRight is further endorsement ofour strategy to grow our global distributor network. The Group's global network of independent dealers for powered access productshas risen from 45 at the start of 2006, to more than 140. This growth demonstrates that the market's confidence in UpRight Powered Accesscontinues to return. We are delighted with the continued high level of interest in our electricvehicles and anticipate that both Newton and Edison will be extremely wellreceived by the fleet market." Enquiries: Roy Stanley, Group ExecutiveTanfield Group plc Tel: 01207 521111 Marc YoungDaniel Stewart & Co plc Tel: 020 7776 6550 ENDS This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange