XL TechGroup company AgCert International makes operational progress
03 November 2005
XL TechGroup (AIM: XLT) company, AgCert International plc (“AgCert”), has today issued an update on its operational performance following its trading update announcement dated 13 September 2005.
AgCert is pleased to announce progress has been made with its operations, particularly with regard to two of the performance measures which had previously fallen behind expectations, namely the number of digester completions and the time taken to complete the modification of animal waste management systems.
From 10 September 2005 to 31 October 2005, an additional 57 farms have been completed, bringing the total completed number of farms to 131. AgCert is now on track to exceed its internal operational target of 170 completed farms by 31 December 2005. In addition, the recent completion time for digester construction has been averaging less than 12 weeks, compared with 16 to 20 weeks for the farms completed up to 10 September 2005.
As of today, AgCert has 23 Project Design Documents (“PDDs”) in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) regulatory process. AgCert anticipates nearly doubling its number of PDD submissions over the next 90 days and its management remains focused on seeking to improve other operational metrics. Although the directors of AgCert are encouraged by this progress, they are not yet in a position to revise their previous guidance on the timeframe for achieving AgCert's inventory and sales targets for 2005 and 2006, and expect to provide a full update by year end.
Bill Haskell , interim CEO of AgCert said: “I am extremely pleased with the progress made during the last several weeks. We have increased our farm completion rate and shortened the average completion time. We are continuing in our search for a new CEO and we will advise further when it is appropriate to do so.”
Dr John Scott, CEO of XL TechGroup, said: “Our previously stated belief that the operational problems experienced at AgCert are of a short-term nature is being substantiated by the operational progress being made, where the steps being implemented are already producing tangible results. As I have stated on many occasions, we are committed shareholders in AgCert.”
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