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Lakeland Industries, Inc.: Lakeland Industries Receives Large Contract for Firefighter Garments in Brazil

^{Published on 2008-12-23 05:37:43, Last Modified on 2008-12-23 05:38:54 - Market Wire}
 

RONKONKOMA, NY--(Marketwire - December 23, 2008) - Lakeland Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ: [ LAKE ]), a market leader in protective apparel, today announced that, through its Brazilian subsidiary Qualytextil, the Company has received a contract worth approximately US$750,000 from Brasilia Firefighters, for customized protective fire coats. This award builds upon existing business with Lakeland and is representative of the high-caliber customers doing business with Qualytextil. Brasilia Firefighters is a fire department located in the capital of Brazil.

"In the nearly three months that we have been concentrating on expanding our business in Latin America through our new Brazilian subsidiary, we have received five major contracts among other orders," said Chris Ryan, CEO of Lakeland Industries. "Each contract has been awarded to us from either a government agency or a large multinational. In all cases, the orders represent sales of higher margin products as compared to our domestic US sales. We have only just begun to penetrate a large and growing market in Brazil and we are well positioned to grow our share."

With a population of 192 million people, Brazil is one of the most populous countries in the world that is rapidly growing. By contrast, the United States has some 300 million citizens. According to the latest available statistics from the National Fire Protection Association, there are an estimated 30,635 fire departments in the United States. Collectively, there were 1,140,900 firefighters in the United States, of which 316,950 (28%) were career firefighters and 823,950 (72%) were volunteer firefighters. To protect the United States population, there was one firefighter for every 263 people. As Brazil's economy develops, it is anticipated that the demand for protective fire coats alone will increase to a proportionate rate with the United States, resulting in a total requirement of 730,000 fire coats in Brazil valued at over US$1 billion. At this rate, Lakeland has over the past three months supplied less than 1% of the total anticipated demand for fire coats in Brazil.

In addition to firefighter apparel, which includes fire coats and other gear, Lakeland is currently selling protective garments in several of Brazil's largest industries, including electric utilities, oil/petrochemical, mining, technology, and environmental. Lakeland's efforts in Brazil are supported by a locally domiciled, wholly-owned subsidiary, and manufacturing and marketing channels at the parent company level. The local operations are comprised of an in-house sales force of 40 employees and nearly 19 outside sales representatives covering the entire country of Brazil for marketing of products directly to end users. With domestic manufacturing capabilities, products can be made locally or can be ordered from Lakeland's extensive catalog for import from its eight other geographically dispersed manufacturing facilities, in India, Mexico, China and the U.S.A. Thus, Lakeland will be adding multiple new product lines from its foreign manufacturing facilities to Brazil's 60 man sales force.

About Lakeland Industries, Inc.:

Lakeland Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ: [ LAKE ]) manufactures and sells a comprehensive line of safety garments and accessories for the industrial protective clothing market. The Company's products are sold by a direct sales force and through independent sales representatives to a network of over 1000 safety and mill supply distributors. These distributors in turn supply end user industrial customers such as chemical/petrochemical, automobile, steel, glass, construction, smelting, janitorial, pharmaceutical and high technology electronics manufacturers, as well as hospitals and laboratories. In addition, Lakeland supplies federal, state, and local government agencies, fire and police departments, airport crash rescue units, the Department of Defense, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and may other federal and state agencies.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including statements, without limitation, regarding our expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future. We intend that such forward-looking statements be subject to the safe-harbor provided by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements that are not historical are forward-looking. Forward-looking statements may relate to, but are not limited to, the effect of agreements described above but also on our international and total revenues and the size and growth of the Brazilian and International markets for protective apparel. Such forward-looking statements are based upon current information and expectations. These estimates and statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict.

For more information concerning Lakeland, please visit the Company online at [ www.lakeland.com ].