Lakeland Industries, Inc. ("Lakeland Fire + Safety" or "Lakeland") (NASDAQ:LAKE), a leading global manufacturer of protective clothing and apparel for industry, healthcare and first responders on the federal, state and local levels, today announced it was awarded contract EE 11-24 through the Houston-Galveston Area Council ("H-GAC") Board to allow local governments across the United States to access Lakeland's extensive portfolio of firefighter protective gear at competitive, volume-based pricing through the HGACBuy Program.
The Houston-Galveston Area Council is the regional organization through which local governments consider issues and cooperate in solving areawide problems. The HGACBuy Program is a cooperative purchasing organization that has been in operation for over 45 years. It provides local governments with a streamlined procurement process for high-value, capital-intensive products and services while ensuring compliance with statutory requirements for competitive bidding and requests for proposals.
"With over 9,000 government entities participating in the program, this award further solidifies Lakeland's position as a trusted supplier of critical equipment for first responders," said Barry G. Phillips, Chief Revenue Officer of Lakeland Industries. "Lakeland products are meticulously designed to meet the rigorous needs of first responders who dedicate their lives to protecting communities every day. The contract provides a purchasing vehicle to local governments that enables efficient procurement access to our high-quality emergency medical, fire safety, and rescue equipment. This is another testament to our ongoing commitment to support and serve the brave first responders that protect us."
Jim Jenkins, President, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Chairman of Lakeland, added, "The HGACBuy Program award and nationwide customer base validates our continued investment in building a global fire brand. We are leveraging our leading market position in personal protective equipment and reputation for producing industry-leading equipment for firefighters, emergency responders and industrial workers in hazardous environments to accelerate growth globally. Our head-to-toe fire portfolio now includes a wide range of life-saving gear such as chemical protective clothing, high-performance Flame Resistant workwear, critical environments protective apparel, and more, all designed with the utmost attention to safety, durability, and performance. We look forward to serving the needs of HGACBuy Program customers as we continue to build long term value for our shareholders."
For more information about Lakeland Fire + Safety's products and services, please visit www.lakeland.com/fire.
About The Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC)
The Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC) is the regional organization through which local governments consider issues and cooperate in solving area wide problems. Through H-GAC, local governments also initiate efforts in anticipating and preventing problems, saving public funds. The 13-county H-GAC service region is growing, becoming more diverse, and constantly changing. To address the needs of citizens and businesses, local governments are providing leadership to guide regional development wisely and manage change constructively.
HGACBuy is a "Government-to-Government" procurement service available nationwide. Governmental entities have been procuring products and services through HGACBuy for over 30 years. As a unit of local government assisting other local governments, HGACBuy strives to make the governmental procurement process more efficient by establishing competitively priced contracts for goods and services, and providing the customer service necessary to help its members achieve their procurement goals. For more information visit www.h-gac.com.
About Lakeland Fire + Safety
Lakeland Fire + Safety manufactures and sells a comprehensive line of fire services and industrial protective clothing and accessories for the industrial and first responder markets. Our products are sold globally by our in-house sales teams, our customer service group, and authorized independent sales representatives to a strategic global network of selective fire safety and industrial distributors and wholesale partners. Our authorized distributors supply end users, such as integrated oil, chemical/petrochemical, automobile, transportation, steel, glass, construction, smelting, cleanroom, janitorial, pharmaceutical, and high technology electronics manufacturers, as well as scientific, medical laboratories and the utilities industry. In addition, we supply federal, state and local governmental agencies and departments, such as fire and law enforcement, airport crash rescue units, the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security and the Centers for Disease Control. Internationally, we sell to a mixture of end users directly and to industrial distributors, depending on the particular country and market. In addition to the United States, sales are made into more than 50 foreign countries, the majority of which were into China, the European Economic Community ("EEC"), Canada, Chile, Argentina, Russia, Kazakhstan, Colombia, Mexico, Ecuador, India, Uruguay, Middle East, Southeast Asia, Australia, Hong Kong and New Zealand.
For more information concerning Lakeland, please visit the Company online at www.lakeland.com.
"Safe Harbor" Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" as that phrase is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, which address Lakeland's expectations of sources or uses for capital or which express the Company's expectation for the future with respect to financial performance or operating strategies, including statements regarding the public offering and the use of proceeds therefrom, can be identified as forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions as described from time to time in Press Releases and Forms 8-K, registration statements, quarterly and annual reports and other reports
and filings filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission or made by management. As a result, there can be no assurance that Lakeland's future results will not be materially different from those described herein as "believed," "projected," "planned," "intended," "anticipated," "can," "estimated" or "expected," or other words which reflect the current view of the Company with respect to future events. We caution readers that these forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof. The Company hereby expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any such statements to reflect any change in the Company's expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which such statement is based, except as may be required by law.
Contacts Lakeland Fire + Safety 256-600-1390 Roger Shannon Chief Financial Officer rdshannon@lakeland.com
Investor Relations Chris Tyson Executive Vice President MZ Group - MZ North America 949-491-8235 LAKE@mzgroup.us www.mzgroup.us
