TT electronics plc, the global electronics manufacturing company, announces the acquisition of the business of Demo Tableaux de Commande. Based at Le Mans in France, Demo designs and manufactures automotive climate control panels for customers based mainly in France, on Renault, Peugeot and Citroen vehicles.

The Le Mans facility operates the complete design and manufacturing process incorporating plastic moulding, printed circuit board assembly and system build. A low cost manufacturing unit in Curitiba, near Sao Paulo, Brazil has recently been set up to support the growing domestic automotive industry in South America. Demo achieved sales of €17.6 million in the year to 31 December 2002.

Demo will be managed by AB Automotive Electronics, a supplier of climate control units, body electronics and switch assemblies to vehicle manufacturers and major system integrators worldwide. AB Automotive Electronics is a wholly owned subsidiary of TT electronics offering a complete service of product development, testing and volume production from their South Wales based facility. In support of the growing USA business AB Automotive established, in 1998, a sales and design office in Detroit and a manufacturing facility in North Carolina.

The acquisition of Demo gives TT electronics a broad base of climate control manufacturing locations in UK, Mainland Europe, North and South America plus design and sales offices in the UK, France and North America.

David Oates, Managing Director, AB Automotive Electronics, says: “This acquisition greatly enhances our position in the automotive climate control sector. At a stroke it more than doubles our output of these products and now enables us to offer customers a complete range from the straightforward to the complex control panel systems.

"AB Automotive Electronics has been very successful in North America in the past 5 years, and we expect the combined businesses to achieve significant growth on the continent of Europe and South America. The customers of both companies have welcomed and encouraged this acquisition. On the strength of our anticipated relationship, Demo has already been awarded new contracts starting in late 2003, growing to €20m sales per year in 2005.”

The TT electronics’ automotive systems and sensor business, of which Demo will form a part, continues to grow.

John Newman, Executive Chairman of TT electronics said at the announcement of the preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2002. “ The 6% increase in sales of our electronic sensors and systems to the automotive market demonstrates the underlying strength of this core market resulting from the increasing presence of electronics in new cars. We expect sales of these products to increase by 25% by the year 2005."

For further information please contact: -

Ruth Phillips
AB Automotive Electronics +44 (0) 29 2030 0000

Roland Cross/ Sara Champness
Broadgate +44 (0) 20 7726 6111