Wincanton Preliminary Results

Given these sustained levels of profit growth, your Board is recommending a higher rate of dividend increase than in previous years. The proposed full year dividend this year, of 14.91p per share, represents an increase of 10 per cent on last year’s 13.55p per share. As a consequence of the 15.7 per cent increase being reported in underlying earnings this year, dividend cover improves from 1.5 times to 1.6 times, even with the substantial improvement in the rate of dividend growth being recommended.

As Wincanton continues to grow it is reassuring to see our core people, performance and customer values remaining both fundamental to our existing operations and being rapidly assimilated into all our recent acquisitions. We welcomed three new businesses to the Group this year, Swales Haulage and Hanbury Davies in the UK & Ireland, and HeBo in Germany. Swales helps us to build further on our leading position in logistics services for the construction industry. Hanbury Davies represents a further expansion of our container management operations, a fast-growing area both in the market as a whole and for Wincanton. HeBo strengthens our leading position in logistics services to the high-tech industry in Germany. Since the year end we have also announced the acquisition of PSHL, a UK-based business with a strong presence in time-critical spare part and procurement services for the defence and aerospace industries. These are new industries for Wincanton which we believe offer exciting growth potential. We welcome the employees of all these businesses to the Group.

Expansion into new sectors and new services, both organically and through acquisition, is changing and renewing the Group’s portfolio of activities. We are seeing continuing opportunities in our existing activities, but also successfully supplementing these opportunities through development in newer industries and services, such as construction, home delivery, records management, recycling, container management and foodservice. These activities already represent some 20 per cent of the contract contribution, before central overheads, of our business in the UK & Ireland. A number of these businesses have been transferred to a new business unit, Emerging Solutions, to ensure that these activities receive the appropriate level of operational and strategic focus and deliver their above-average growth potential for the Group.

The continuing strength of the Group’s existing businesses and customer relationships was again confirmed by the fact that some 70 per cent of the new business won in the year in the UK & Ireland, and over 65 per cent of the new business won by the Group overall, was awarded by existing customers.

Re-organisation of our management structures and the re-focusing of our strategic priorities have also been features of the year in Mainland Europe. Our operations in Germany are beginning to benefit from the tactical and strategic initiatives of our significantly strengthened management team. Our activities in France and the Benelux countries have been formed into a new Western Europe business unit, and the senior team in this region has also been reinforced with highly-experienced recruits in key functions. In Central & Eastern Europe, our regional Managing Director has brought in new country heads in both Hungary and the Czech Republic.

We have much still to do to deliver meaningful profit progress in Mainland Europe, but good management teams are in place and are implementing our profit improvement plans, our increased investment in marketing is clearly delivering higher brand awareness and the new business pipelines are beginning to offer grounds for encouragement.

We have set ourselves stretching objectives for the new financial year. Good progress is being made, particularly in the UK & Ireland, towards the delivery of our challenging new business targets. In respect of Mainland Europe we believe that further progress will be made and are encouraged, for example, by the strong action being taken to improve the performance of the German road network.

We operate in highly competitive markets and the current economic outlook is uncertain, but we continue to have confidence in Wincanton’s ability to build further on the achievements of recent years. Our objective is for 2008/09 to be another period of progress for the Group, confirming Wincanton’s position as a European leader in its sector.

On 9 May 2008 a statement was released to The London Stock Exchange regarding a possible offer by Wincanton for TDG plc. The statement contained the following commitment: “No offer will be made if due diligence does not confirm Wincanton’s assumptions which indicate that a transaction would be substantially value-enhancing for Wincanton shareholders.” As at the date of our preliminary results announcement, 5 June, due diligence was continuing. A further announcement will be made in due course.