Re. Tristel Italia srl

Tristel PLC 06 February 2008 TRISTEL plc Establishment of Tristel Italia srl Tristel plc ('Tristel'), the AIM listed provider of infection and contamination control products, announces that it has taken a 20% interest in Tristel Italia srl ('TI'), a company incorporated in Italy and established to commercialise Tristel's product portfolio in the country. TI was incorporated on 9 October 2007. Prior to Tristel becoming a shareholder TI was wholly-owned by Mr Michael Donaldson. Mr Donaldson, aged 51, was Country Manager, Italy and Greece, for Fuji Hunt Photographic Chemicals until June 2006. During the past eighteen months Mr Donaldson has been assessing the potential of the Italian market for Tristel. He is resident in Milan. Tristel is providing a loan facility to TI to fund its early stage development and has an option to increase its shareholding in TI from 20% to 51%. Paul Swinney, Chief Executive of Tristel, assumes the position of President of TI and Michael Donaldson its Managing Director. Commenting on Tristel's involvement in TI and the Italian market, Paul Swinney explains: 'The development of our export business is proceeding well. In all the export markets which we are currently penetrating we are working with distributors. Whilst this model is highly effective its limitations can be exposed as the Tristel product portfolio continues to expand. We address specific niches within the hospital market and it can be difficult to identify a distributor capable of exploiting them all successfully. 'Michael has been known to us for many years and is well qualified to build the Tristel business in Italy. The Italian hospital market has many similarities to the United Kingdom's. We are very encouraged to have already secured TI's first customers in the Ear, Nose and Throat market, an area we dominate in our home market. 'This investment for international expansion represents a departure from our present export market development model. However, the investment is modest and we believe that a direct presence in Italy will accelerate significantly our penetration of this major European market.' Contacts: Tristel plc Paul Swinney, Chief Executive Tel: 01638 721 500 Daniel Stewart & Company Plc Oliver Rigby Tel: 020 7776 6550 Parkgreen Communications Ltd Tel: 020 7479 7933 Paul McManus Mob: 07980 541 893 paul.mcmanus@parkgreenmedia.com This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange