Tanfield breaches £2

By John Smith (guest blogger)

It's been quite a month for Tanfield's share price.

Knocking around 185p a month ago, and ended today passing the psychological £2 barrier to finish at 203p. I doubt very much £2 was a barrier to the market, but it's certainly a milestone for the watch and hope brigade, like myself.

There's a write up in the local paper about setting up a factory in the U.S. to produce the electric trucks.
http://www.thisisthenortheast.co.uk/business/news/display.var.1559567.0.company_to_open_electric_vehicles_factory_in_the_us.php

I suppose I should think of an exit strategy, but this looks like it could carry on a while yet. Fingers crossed, while I ponder sell or hold. I've pondered, I'm hanging on a while :) Seriously though, they are really just setting up. They seem to have the right product at the right time, being "green" is the new P.C. I suppose it depends on how good the management team are. Can they deliver? I guess we'll see in a couple of years.

There are rumours of some announcement on Monday, but who knows, there are always rumours, we'll see on Monday.

Market Abuse - Ramping and De-ramping

[This post has been edited and a new link demonstrating Market Abuse from the Wall Street Journal added to it Thursday 12th July 2007]

Have you been on a shareholders bulletin board (BB) or forum recently where something looks fishy?

Well over on the iii BB for Stanelco, a shareholder has taken things into his own hands and reported the company to the LSE for what he/she perceives to have been the company's deliberate attempts to ramp their position in the market by sending out overly positive statements whilst in reality everything wasn't as rosy in their garden after all as was evidenced by the failure of their Greenseal Trials with Asda.

Prior to their admission of the trial failure, all company statements had said the trials were going well. So what might the company have been guilty of (allegedly)? Well maybe they were guilty of suppressing the negative price sensitive news that should maybe have been issued at a much earlier stage.

A company has an obligation to their shareholders to issue ALL price sensitive news within a timely manner, whether that be in the Positive or the Negative as this is what shareholders use to make financial decisions on their stakes within the company ie their shareholding levels.

It is understandable to a degree that no company wants to have to issue bad news as they want the shareprice to go up not down obviously. Keeping the price heading up makes it easier for them to get institutions on board and to secure funding when required. Negative news hinders this.

So what is Ramping?

Well ramping can take many forms, from a company not issuing the negative news, a shareholder who has lost a lot of money in the past and has maybe bought in at a new low and now wants to make back his losses, a company owner overstating the future potential of the company, to even someone circulating rumours of a take over bid on it's way.

A ramper might use a BB to constantly espouse the future potential revenue of the company even if unfounded, put ridiculous valuations on a company for possible take over bids and post so often as to drown out other peoples opinions. They might also pick on other posters and mis-represent what they are saying if they take a even a slightly different view to them or an obvious opposing position. This can even go so far as to go offline and become a personal attack if they have access to your email address.

What is De-ramping - and who does it benefit?

This, also, can take different forms. Perhaps a shareholder has gone short on a share, they obviously then need a decline in the shareprice to make a profit, so they will go onto BB's and say anything they can to persuade others that the company is going to fail or a particular product is going to fail. Directors who want to perform a management buyout, might similarly suppress the positives about how the company or products are progressing to a degree where they are not fully informing the market of 'positive' price sensitive news, for their own ends.

A de-ramper can and will also use all of the same tactics as the ramper when it comes to BB's and making sure their message is the only one heard.


So what is the difference between the ordinary shareholder and the ramper or de-ramper?

Well the ordinary shareholder, while they probably enthuse about any company they have bought shares in, they will also take on board the possible negatives and be happy to have both sides of any argument openly aired so that they can make an informed decision. They might not like to hear the negatives or have their excitement quelled a bit, however, they will listen and accept that no company or product market is buoyant ALL the time and they will want to hear clear arguments from both sides of the fence and from that, they will then decide to continue to hold a share or sell up and move on. At least they will have had all the information available to them to do this.

Now lets face it, we all get a bit excited when we hear a rumour and the old adage goes, Buy on Rumour Sell on Fact, the market operates a lot on rumours, but I suppose the important thing to think about when you hear a rumour is. Where did the rumour start, has the person posting the rumour backed it up with any research and/or links to that research. If it has just appeared completely out of the blue and has absolutely no basis in fact, then bide your time and wait for confirmation or you could just be supporting a shorters dream situation, or helping someone who's lost a lot of money to sell into a rise created by the rumour. They will then be off, while you are left sitting with the shares and the price drifting down again.


Related Articles
thisismoney.co.uk published an article entitled Avoid the Pump And Dump last year, warning people about email and BB campaigns to ramp or de-ramp shares.

And what happens if someone is found out.......
'City Slicker' Hipwell Jailed
Livedoor founder arrested
'Lie for me' asked Morgan
High-risk journey to the unknown
Wall street Journal

Enjoy BB's they can be a lot of fun and you can meet a lot of very nice, knowledgeable, witty, trustworthy people on there. But be wary, you can also become a gullible victim of someone elses game very easily, but be careful of getting dragged into something that could see you entrapped in an illegal situation.

If it looks fishy and smells fishy, then take care, we all know what bad fish does to us. :o)

Oh and by the way, I hold Stanelco shares at a loss, but I'm not afraid to hide the negatives because of that loss....LOL....the truth is the truth.

Tanfield Group Gold

For those of you following the Tanfield Group, it's price since I first blogged it is up 98.9%. Currently sitting at £1.87 vs £1.89 ( a nice narrow spread) it has hardly faltered on its way up. Very kindly again my guest blogger, John Smith, has provided me with some information to put on here, so no credit to me at all.....lol Thanks John, over to you :o)

Is this the golden goose? An amazing week for Tanfield last week.

Shares were dropping back a little, apparently on press speculation that they would be coming to the market to fund an aquisition. So up pops an RNS titled "press speculation"

RNS Number:1123Z Tanfield Group PLC 27 June 2007
The Company notes the recent press speculation regarding a fund raising. The Company confirms that it has completed a placing to raise #115 million at 163p per ordinary share to fund a substantial acquisition, which is expected to be significantly earnings enhancing in the first full year of ownership. The placing is conditional upon, inter alia, completion of the acquisition and the Company expects to provide further information shortly.

How shortly for the "further information"? Well, the next day actually. This is a big RNS, so better not paste it all here, just the main statement.

RNS Number:1886Z Tanfield Group PLC 28 June 2007
28 June 2007
The Tanfield Group Plc, the leading manufacturer of zero emission electric vehicles and aerial work platforms, is pleased to announce the proposed acquisition (the 'Acquisition') of the entire issued share capital of Snorkel Holdings LLC ('Snorkel') and a conditional placing to raise #115 million (before expenses) (the "Placing").
Snorkel is a worldwide supplier of high quality industrial aerial work platforms. The products have a wide range of working at height applications and are supported by service, parts and training teams. Snorkel has significant manufacturing capabilities along with strong sales and distribution, in the USA and Australasia.

Also, they put out the RNS to annouce the annual reports.

RNS Number:1947Z Tanfield Group PLC 28 June 2007
Annual Report & Accounts and Notice of Annual General Meeting
The Company's Annual Report and Accounts for 2006 together with notice of the Annual General Meeting, which takes place at 10:00 on 28 September 2007 at Vigo Centre, Birtley Road, Washington Tyne and Wear, NE38 9DA are available for inspection from our website:
http://www.tanfieldgroup.co.uk/
Copies will be sent to shareholders shortly.

Shortly again? Somehow I don't think this means the next day :)Well I reckon thats enough news for one week. But wait........ Another RNS, Deutsche Bank have annouced that they have increased their stake again.

RNS Number:2385Z Tanfield Group PLC 28 June 2007
Tanfield Group plc (the "Company")
Holding in Company
The Company was informed on 28 June 2007 that Deutsche Bank AG has an interest in 20,640,470 ordinary shares in the Company which represents approximately 7.05% of the issued share capital of the Company.

There's a local press report thats very bullish. But then they would be, being local and Tanfield doing so well. Share price has settled around 185 at the moment, but has been as high as 195ish intraday peak. 185 is around 10 to 15p up this week.

http://icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/0500business/businessnews/tm_headline=tanfield-ready-to-treble-output%26method=full%26objectid=19377931%26siteid=50081-name_page.html

This little quote from the media relations manager is heart warming. Well, it would be it's his job. "According to Jenkins, the share issue was significantly over-subscribed. We could have raised half a billion pounds because of the interest from institutional investors"

Still looks good.

Tanfield

From guest blogger 'John Smith'

Well, the boy's at Tanfield have done it again. The TNT order has come in two months before the end of the trial. I think this puts out quite a message. It will make others take notice, and at least enquire about the products. Add that to the deals announced earlier this week and things look better than good. Interesting that Ford are supplying transit chassis. Another potentially huge market. How many folk use Trany vans?

There are rumours that they are talking to a USA delivery firm. How big would that be if it turns out to be true? Don't know anything for definite about that though.

Reminds me of my Tadpole enthusiasm when I first bought them. They seemed to be ahead of the market with potential to go into orbit. But Tanfield appear to have the launch procedure right. I hope anyway :)

Not sure about that spread betting lark mind :)

Good luck

Tanfield Group TAN.L

Well done Tanfield up 10p at time or writing (2.58pm) based on news that they have won orders from Sainsbury's, TNT, CEVA Logistics and Scottish & Southern Energy. They are definitely making inroads (pun intended) to assisting with the cleaner cities of the future.

RNS Number:3001V Tanfield Group PLC 23 April 2007
23 April 2007

The Tanfield Group Pl ("Tanfield" or "the Group")

LAUNCH OF EDISON ELECTRIC ZERO EMISSION VAN & NEW CONTRACT WINS

Tanfield, the leading manufacturer of zero emission electric vehicles and aerial work platforms, is pleased to announce the successful launch of its Edison zero emission electric van. Tanfield has today also secured its first contracts for initial 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 initial eight Edison electric vans for its Sainsbury's Online home shopping delivery fleet. Sainsbury's aims to switch 20% of its urban delivery fleet to electric vehicles 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 emission electric vehicle, a larger van based on a different chassis and also produced by Tanfield's trading division, Smith Electric Vehicles. Sainsbury's Online deployed the Faraday in home shopping delivery applications in Central London.

The Edison electric van utilises a Ford Transit Body shell, housing Tanfield's higher function electric vehicle technology. It has a restricted top speed of 50mph and a range of up to 150 miles on one battery charge. Tanfield has signed a supply agreement with Ford that will see Smith Electric Vehicles convert an initial 100 Ford Transit Body shells to battery-powered Edison vans.

Tanfield has received further confirmed orders for Edison from parcel and logistics companies TNT Express and CEVA Logistics (formerly TNT Logistics), who have both already deployed Tanfield's Newton 7.5t electric vehicle.

Scottish & Southern Energy, one of the UK's largest energy companies, has also ordered 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 the vehicle's capabilities and has demonstrated that we can potentially take hundreds of conventional vans out of our urban delivery fleet.
Our fleet will start small but the long term plans mean that by 2010, all our delivery vans operating in high areas of 'delivery density', such as towns and cities, will be battery powered. We look forward to working closely with Smith Electric 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 and those of our customers.
This initial order and further commitment by Sainsbury's demonstrates the level of belief and confidence held by major fleet operators in our zero emission vehicles.

The Ford Transit is the most popular and widely used van in its category, further enhancing driver acceptability of our vehicles. Coupled with Edison's unique performance capabilities, we are confident that the vehicle will generate further volume orders."

Smith Electric Vehicles will officially unveil Edison at the Commercial Vehicle Show, Europe's largest exhibition of commercial vehicles. The CV Show takes place in Birmingham NEC from Tuesday 24th April to Thursday 26th April, 2007.

Roundup for Tadpole, Stanelco, Global Coal etc....

Tadpole Technology - Endeavors Technologies - Geospatial Division
Nothing new to report on this one. I'm awaiting an update on how their visit to MMS2007 went. They posted on their website that Endeavors were attending the event so an update would be prudent. Obviously I don't expect specifics, but it would be nice to know if they got some leads that they are now following up or if they just had a few nice days out. Come on guys, spill the beans!!!

Price has drifted back a little, but not below the 4p mark, which means I think we have now found our new base price for this one and gives us a point to build on if new news comes out soon.

Beau62 has reported on the iii BB that the AGM might be a little earlier than last year
"Apparently, it was indicated that the interims and the Annual Report are being sent out at the same time and should be released in the next 3/4 weeks. It would seem that the AGM may be a little earlier this year also, possibly end June."

Stanelco Group
This one is on my list of recovery stocks and when I first spoke about it the price was a buy at 1.11p. Cheap as chips if you think it has a future. Well obviously some think it has because it has risen 21.8% from that original buy price.

[I have a virtual portfolio of the shares I'm writing about which I put the buy price in on the day I blog it first so my percentages are from there (no buy or sell costs are included)]

So, what has happened to get this price moving.........a directorship change. It just goes to show that the people at the top can be as cruicial to the shareprice as the activities of the company.

RNS Number:7902U Stanelco PLC 13 April 2007 (extract below)
The Board of Stanelco today announces that Martin Wagner is stepping down from his position as Chief Executive with immediate effect for personal reasons. Paul Mines has been appointed as the new Chief Executive, and joins the Company on 16 April 2007. This change follows consultation with a significant group of the Company's shareholders.

Paul has extensive experience within the packaging sector. Until 2006, he was CEO of Betts Group Holdings Ltd. ("Betts") for eight years, having led a management buyout of the company from Courtaulds plc. Paul developed Betts as a specialist packaging business with a global footprint and sales of over #100m. An Engineer with an MBA from London Business School, Paul spent his earlier career at Courtaulds and ICI plc in a variety of commercial and operational roles. He has recently been a consultant partner with Wyvern Partners LLP, assisting their clients with fund-raising and strategic development with a focus on the packaging and renewable energy sectors.
------------------------------------------------------

There has also been director dealing by a non-exec.......
The Company has been notified that John Standen, Non-Executive Director of the Company, and his wife Mrs. Kathleen Standen, today purchased 1,000,000 ordinary shares each of 0.1 pence in the Company ("Ordinary Shares") at a price of 1.19 pence per Ordinary Share.

Following these purchases Mr. Standen's beneficial interest in the Company is 2,000,000 Ordinary Shares, representing a total of 0.07 per cent. of the issued share capital of the Company. The Ordinary Shares will be registered in the name of OMX Securities Nominees Limited, a/c KK.

It can usually be taken as a positive sign when directors are buying shares in a company they are with, however it's never a guarantee.

It appears that the subsidiaries of this company are doing rather better than the main company at the moment and particular attention should be paid to Biotec and Sphere's activities and contracts as this appears to be where the growth is happening or going to happen in the near future.

Biotec distributes a new generation of thermoplastic granules with the brand name offering various functional properties. These granules can be processed on extrusion lines for blown film, sheet films, shaped articles, profiles and injection molding to manufacture completely biodegradable products. BIOPLAST materials allow converters to manufacture products with completely new properties and to enter new markets.

SPHere Group along with 340 potato farmers have bought a 63,000 tons per annum starch factory, and the starch will be used to make Biotec's Bioplast biodegradable plastic, which SPHere will then convert into plastic bags and other products. SPHere in 2005 processed 130,000 tons of plastic, and the starch from this factory is almost enough to convert their entire production to bioplastic.

------I'll look into this in more depth seperately---------

Global Coal Management
This one has pulled back a little from the 20% increase it had seen since it first appeared on here as a recovery stock, but that's to be expected. You have to make a decision about how much you want from a share and if 20% is your mark up, then you've already sold it anyway. It is currently sitting at 16.4% up on my virtual portfolio. This is a share I have bought and am holding. Bought at £1.33.

Latest press release for this one is.....
Strategic Alliance for Exploration for Uranium in Africa extract from article below
Global Coal Management plc (“GCM”), (AIM: GCM) announces it has signed a legally binding Heads of Agreement to form an alliance with Aura Energy Ltd (ASX: AEE) to identify and acquire uranium projects in Africa. The alliance brings together the exploration skills of Aura and the project development and mining experience of GCM.

GCM has adopted a strategy of diversification from its coal project in Bangladesh and has specifically identified Africa as a mineral region with potential for further discovery and development as evidenced by its investment in GVM Metals Ltd (ASX: GVM).

Aura is a uranium exploration company based in Perth, Western Australia which was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in May 2006. Aura has a portfolio of exploration titles which are being actively explored for calcrete and sandstone-hosted uranium deposits. Aura’s Managing Director, Dr Bob Beeson leads a team which has broad experience in uranium and base metal exploration in both Australia and overseas - including Africa and the Middle East.
-------------------------------------------

Whether we like it or not one of the greenest most efficient methods of electricity production is believe it or not - nuclear power, so Uranium is going to be in greater demand as more nuclear power stations come online in the coming years.

[As it happens, there is another Austrailian company which is developing a more cost efficient way of processing uranium - but thats another story for another blog.]

Like I have said before - if you are an ethical investor GCM is not the one for you.

Tanfield Group
Still doing well and currently up 18.6% since I first blogged them (what makes you think I should have invested in all these shares...........lol)

I've not had an update from guest blogger 'John' so a quick look at their website says that there is no news to report on it other than they are still awaiting the results of trials and that 12 April 2007 - Announcement Holding in CompanyIncreased holding of Deutsche Bank AG.

The Company was informed today that Deutsche Bank AG has an interest in 18,394,223 ordinary shares in the Company which represents approximately 6.30% of the issued share capital of the Company.

XploiTe Plc - formerly Fujin Technology
In all honesty I haven't really been keeping much of a watch on this one and when I looked today it is also up in price from my first blog on it...........so much for lack of liquidity eh Peter :o).
It's up 11.4% and director buying seems to figure here too.

RNS Number:6450U XploiTe PLC 11 April 2007
11 April 2007
Xploite plc
Director Shareholding
Xploite plc (the "Company") has been advised of the following purchases of shares in the Company by Alan Watkins, Non-Executive Chairman :
On 5 April, 2007 142,023 shares at 34 pence per ordinary shareOn 10 April, 2007 160,000 shares at 34 pence per ordinary share
Alan Watkins now holds an interest of 639,570 ordinary shares in the Company, representing some 1.65% of its issued ordinary share capital.

RNS Number:9295U XploiTe PLC 16 April 2007
16 April 2007
Xploite plc
Notifiable Interest in Shares
Xploite plc ("the Company") announces that it has received notification that as at 30 March 2007, Mr Peter James Drinkwater, held control over the exercise of voting rights attached to 1,119,605 ordinary shares of 10 pence each in the Company, representing approximately 2.8% of the issued share capital of the Company.

They also completed the purchase of a second IT storage company at the beginning of April.

Extract from full announcement.
4 April 2007
Xploite plc (formerly Fujin Technology plc)
£10.45 million acquisition of a second IT storage business
Xploite plc (“Xploite” or “the Group”), the operator and aggregator of strategic and high growth
IT services businesses, announces that it has completed the acquisition of Bristol-based Anix
Group Ltd (“Anix”), a value added reseller of storage hardware and software solutions, for a cashconsideration of £4.35 million. The Group will also repay £6.10 million of debt held by Anix. Thisis the second acquisition of an IT storage business by the Group this calendar year.
Anix was established in 1989 and until now has remained a privately owned company. It is a
major UK partner to storage and server solutions vendor, IBM, as well as a range of other
vendors in the sector. For the year ended 31 December 2006, Anix’s turnover was £35.5 million
and EBITDA was £1.6 million. The Company had £9 million of recurring revenue from
maintenance and services provided to customers and assets of £0.5 million.

More to come later on Caterpillar, Croma and Ramco Energy...............for now though......that's all folks!

Tanfield results due tomorrow

Guest blogger "John Smith" has passed on this info - thanks again John. Others please feel free to email me info on any share discussed here or any other you wish to see written about on here.

Company results due out tomorrow, and a nice little mention in the Sunday Times.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk:80/tol/business/money/investment/article1563566.ece
extract from full article
So where are the best places for you and your conscience to put your cash right now? One to consider is Tanfield group, which produces a range of environment-friendly vehicles for businesses. Its newest vehicles have ranges of 120-130 miles between recharges and can go up to 50 mph, more than fast enough for most urban environments — which is where the company envisages them being used. Think internet home shopping and grocery delivery; food distribution; parcel, mail and logistics firms; and waste collection and recycling companies. They can all use Tanfield vans, and increasingly they are. Sainsbury’s uses them to distribute chilled foods for its online division and several other operators have them on order.

Last month the company also signed a “significant supply agreement” with M&S to replace some of the store chain’s diesel delivery fleet.

There is huge momentum behind this company —– since December it has had no less than six bullish trading statements and the group’s sales of zero-emissions vehicles in the first half of 2006 were almost as high as sales for 2005. Yet the shares still look cheap: they trade on a price/earnings ratio of 15.5 times despite having forecast earnings growth of over 100%.

Tanfield Group

From the RNS's issued yesterday I see that Prudential Plc is building a big stake in this company.

The first RNS at 9.48am said they had an interest in 3.63% of the company the second at 11.32am an interest in 12.94% of the company an increase of 25,509,920 shares or 9.31% in the space of 2 hours.

That is a loud shout about where they see this company heading pricewise!


RNS Number:2806T Tanfield Group PLC 20 March 2007
Tanfield Group plc (the "Company")
Holding in Company
The Company was informed today that Prudential plc has an interest in 12,291,551 ordinary shares in the Company which represents approximately 3.63% of the issued share capital of the Company.

RNS Number:2928T Tanfield Group PLC 20 March 2007
Tanfield Group plc (the "Company")
Holding in Company
The Company was informed today that Prudential plc has an interest in 37,801,471 ordinary shares in the Company which represents approximately 12.94% of the issued share capital of the Company.

TNT endorse Tanfield electric lorries

For those of you who are follwing the Tanfield Group section of the blog, just in case you didn't notice that my anonymous contributor had added this into the comment section, I've pulled it up to a new blog as it's well worth a watch.

TNT have been trialing 2 electric lorries from Tanfield and state in the news reel that normally a truck would cost £110 per week in deisel fuel but these cost £25 per week to run and they don't incur congestion charge.

At the end of the reel it says that TNT are considering putting in an order for 200 of these. I reckon the rise so far in this share is not at an end, so if like me you are watching instead of purchasing.......maybe we should make a move before we miss out as a large order like that from TNT should surely wake up other companies to the benefits of London deliveries by electric vans/lorries.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_6200000/newsid_6201300/6201393.stm?bw=bb&mp=wm


UPDATE ADDED ....... the article is from December so perhaps already priced into the shares.however if you go to the TNT website and read this link, then I think you can assume that one order would lead to more looking at their concerns over being 'green across europe'

http://www.tnt.com/country/en_gb/about/pressoffice/news/news_from_2006/22122006b.html

and an extract from this article suggests 3000 vehicles could be ordered.

http://www.thisisthenortheast.co.uk/business/news/display.var.1058423.0.tnt_trial_to_trigger_explosive_growth.php
The Tanfield spokesman said: "If they did decide to roll it out across the board, potentially that would be an order of about 3,000 vehicles.
"Undoubtedly, if we got such an order, there would be a significant impact on the size of our workforce. Even as it stands, this will have a really big impact on the North-East."

Tanfield Group

UPDATE from 'John Smith' - thanks john, sorry was away for a day or two.

hello :)

thought I'd use you as a guinnea pig. :)

I've uploaded the Investec Tanfield report onto a file share site, thought maybe you could post the link, if anyone would be interested in reading it. just wondering if this file share site works ok. might be easier using this instead of e-mailing big files? Don't ask me how legal all this is, but it's easy deleted if someone complains :)

http://www.4shared.com/dir/2163366/60540eab/sharing.html

Tanfield Group - guest blogger

Hi there, well can't take credit for this one as all info provided by 'john smith' not his real name, but asked to remain annonymous. Thanks for all the info 'john'...over to you!

http://finance.google.com/finance?q=SEA%3ATAN

Well, Tanfield? Tanfield group started out as an engineering company based on an industrial estate in a little town in Co Durham called Tanfield Lea. They got involved with another local company, Smith Electric Vehicle's, which produced mainly milk floats. Recently bought out an American company called Upright. Upright build electric lifts for work areas, cherry pickers and scisor lifts.

The Smith Electric is probably the main noise at the moment, with M&S and TNT trialing the 7.5 tonner they call the Newton. TNT are said to be buying 200 depending on the results of the trial. And I guess other city centre delivery firms will be loking at the results, since vitually no running costs, or congestion charges, thought the trucks do cost almost twice that of a diesel truck. Kevin Harkin of Smith Elecric is in the USA at a show, doing some sale pitch I guess. http://www.eyefortransport.com/fuel/agenda.shtml

Upright are starting to make a bit of noise too. Recently they relaunched in the USA at the so called prestigeous Rental Show.

http://www.tanfieldgroup.co.uk/Newsletter_Upright_Issue30.html

The factory they've just opened is currently on a day shift production, and they are looking to start another shift soon. I've applied for a job there, and got a letter stating this. Plus I know a few people working there.

Tanfield were recently at a rail show too, but I don't know in what capacity. They have a company that supplies fork lifts and things like that so it could have been that.

http://www.railtex.co.uk/

http://www.sev.co.uk/ or maybe http://www.jumbotugs.co.uk/


Press bit, Observer, there's no link now
The future is green for UK's white van menTerry SlavinSunday February 18, 2007
The Observer
A small Tyneside company that has manufactured milk floats for 80 years is aiming to turn 'white van man' green by producing what it claims are the world's largest zero-emissions commercial vehicles.

The first battery-powered delivery vans off the Smith Electric Vehicles production line in December were snapped up by logistics operator TNT, Starbucks, Sainsbury's and Marks & Spencer, but many other major retailers are in talks to buy the vans, the company says.

They have a top speed of 50mph and a range of 130 miles between battery recharges. On top of their green credentials, the vehicles are exempt from the London congestion charge and road tax.M&S said the vans could replace its urban diesel fleet and potentially play a large role in helping it become carbon-neutral.

It is a stunning turnaround for Washington-based Smith Electric Vehicles, which has seen its milk-float business curdle over the last few years. Dan Jenkins, a spokesman for Aim-listed The Tanfield Group plc, which bought Smith's in 2005, described the electric vans as 'the supercharged son of the milk float'. Later this month Smith's is to launch a nine-tonne version for Europe, followed by a 12-tonne model for the global market in March. In April it will launch an electric version of the 3.5 tonne Transit van.

There's been a fair bit in the press lately, especially up here (Durham) with it being a local company. It seems to be a gold mine for investing, IF they can match their expansion aims.

The web site is worth a trawl around, and the investec report on there is worth a read too. http://www.tanfieldgroup.co.uk/ Oh they seem to have taken the investec report off, so I'll attach it :)

*****UGL - back to me...sorry couldnt attach the report here as PDF and it wouldnt copy over. Don't think you're allowed to reproduce those things anyway.....not sure.****

Back to 'john'

oh forgot about this site http://www.trustnet.co.uk/?rtype=1 don't know if you've come accross it before, but it lists all the trusts and istitutions that hold shares. Type for example Tanfield in the search and open the links it finds. Seems these fund mangers have a lot of Tanfield. http://www.trustnet.co.uk/general/search.asp?txts=tanfield&gobutton=Go

Thanks 'john' if you come up with any more info I'll be glad to add it. :o)