Tanfield hit road with zero emissions taxis

Apr 23 2008 by Andrew Mernin, The Journal

ELECTRIC vehicles maker Tanfield has announced a potentially lucrative deal to develop the world’s first zero emissions taxi cab after revealing a 310% climb in profits.

The Washington group has signed a contract with black cab-maker Manganese Bronze Holdings to produce a battery powered, zero emission urban taxi cab which it is hoped will be used on roads around the world by 2009.

As the company yesterday revealed a 201% climb in turnover to £123m for the year to December 31, 2007, it also confirmed that plans to build a manufacturing plant in the region – that will employ 300 people initially – would go ahead later this year. The firm has identified a 150,000sqft dedicated production facility in the North East for its zero emissions vehicle division with a capacity to make 3,000 units a year and to eventually employ 500 people.

Last year the company saw profits soar 310% to £11.9m while net assets climbed from £43.4m in 2006 to £165m the following year.

Yesterday the business said it now has a confirmed order book of 523 units for the rest of the year, a powered access order book of £101m and a record US customer backlog worth £55.6m. Chief executive Darren Kell said the company has an "extremely robust outlook" for the future as it continues to focus on growth in the US market. He said: "We are looking at a couple of sites in America with a view to opening a second site there. We are on target to create 300 jobs in the North East this year and hopefully more next year."

But shares in the manufacturer plunged 17% yesterday after profits undershot expectations and analysts said they were concerned about economic conditions and would downgrade forecasts.

Investec analyst Chris Dyett said: "Tanfield’s preliminaries appear to be positive but include a number of issues. The results are below expectations... and we are likely to downgrade our earnings forecasts by 3%-5% in 2008 and around 20% in 2009 as we are concerned about the broader macro environment."