MEDIA RELEASE

February 8, 2008

Blacktop Construction to focus on new asphalt plant options.

Blacktop Construction has decided to withdraw from the Environment Waikato consent hearing process relating to a site at Riverlea Road to focus its resources on new options for its proposed asphalt plant in the region.

“These options have recently become available and they offer significant business advantages to us over the Riverlea site,” explains Blacktop Construction technical manager Rhett Bishop.

Bishop says Blacktop supplies around 30 per cent of Waikato’s asphalt needs and the company must urgently increase production to meet demand from essential roading projects.

“We need to move quickly to secure a new site for the sake of our shareholders, customers and staff. We are confident our submission to the Environment Waikato hearing would have been successful. We want, however, to focus our energies on the new options,” he comments.

Bishop says the company made the Riverlea proposal in good faith. The proposed asphalt plant was correctly sited in an existing industrial area, alongside other industrial plants.  It would have been built to similar standards as other existing asphalt plants. 

Blacktop Construction operates three successful asphalt plants, including one at Te Rapa, and has had a thirty year track record in the roading business.

Bishop says the new site options are commercially sensitive at this stage as the company is in negotiations which it believes will be successful.

Blacktop Construction is a New Zealand-owned, family-run business with thirty staff and a significant investment in the Waikato. The company is the fourth largest asphalt producer in New Zealand.

For further information:

Rhett Bishop, Technical Manager, Blacktop Construction, Phone: 027 486 5739 or 07 849 0958.