RNS Number:1295O
Water Hall Group Plc
30 July 2003


Water Hall Group plc announces that at the Company's Annual General Meeting
today, the Chairman, John Leach, made the following statement about the Company,
the current state of progress and its future direction.



"Only a few weeks have elapsed since the publication of your Company's Report &
Accounts on 27 June 2003. My statement in those Accounts provided considerable
detail as to the events of the past twelve months and a trading update.



The highlight of 2002, as I reported to you at last year's AGM, was the
successful fund raising completed on 17 April 2002, raising #816,000 after
expenses, which enabled the Company's banking arrangements to be formalised
through debt reduction and the provision of a medium term loan.



On the negative side, the Company suffered from the failure to obtain two major
planning consents it was seeking for aggregate extraction and landfill. These
planning applications became clouded by uncertainties arising from the draft
National Mineral Plan Reviews, causing the Board to conclude that irrespective
of the merits of the applications, the uncertainties and associated costs in
pursuing these matters to an Appeal could not be justified.



In turn, this caused the Board to review its strategy for the future and it
concluded that shareholders best interests would be served by driving the
business for profit and cash generation through accelerating the conversion of
the Company's depleting mineral and landfill reserves to cash. At the same time,
a small number of low cost planning and other initiatives, in particular that of
focusing upon the successful recycling operation would be pursued, with the
objective of increasing the available remaining consented reserves and therefore
the longevity of the current activities at the Hertfordshire site.



The impact of these changes also caused the Board to conduct a stringent review
of the carrying costs associated with its non-consented assets and to obtain an
external valuation of all the Group's mineral reserves and landfill resources.
As a result, it was felt prudent to reflect the outcome of this valuation review
and the professional advice taken thereon in the Group's profit and loss
account, under exceptional items, and therefore the balance sheet, together with
those costs related to the cessation of a number of embryo business ventures.
This is explained in greater detail in the Annual Report.



Implementation of the revised strategy has also resulted in central costs being
much reduced to a level commensurate with the size of the business, a position
the Board intends to maintain.



I am pleased to inform the meeting that trading for the first half of the year
is profitable and has met with the Board's expectations. The business is
benefiting from the introduction of its enhanced recycling facility which is now
processing all general waste received from its customers. However, given that a
significant proportion of the business is that of providing final disposal
facilities for waste materials generated by the construction industry, the Board
anticipates more difficult trading conditions for the second half of the year.



To maximise profitability and cash generation, the Board and management will
continue to maintain firm control on costs. In addition, whenever it can be
demonstrated that investment in the key profit areas would result in increased
efficiency and profitability, the Board will be supportive of making such
investment.



Given managements ability to react positively to market conditions, at this
early stage in the second half of the year, the Board believes that a
satisfactory result for the year should be achieved."



Water Hall also announces that all resolutions put to the meeting were duly
approved by shareholders.


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