CARLISLE, IA--(Marketwire - March 9, 2009) - GreenMan Technologies, Inc. (
OTCBB:
GMTI),
today announced that its Annual Shareholders' meeting will be held on
Tuesday, April 7, 2009, at 3:00 P.M. in the Youngstown Room at the Sleep
Inn & Suites, 5850 Morning Star Court, Pleasant Hill, Iowa 50327 for the
purposes of (1) electing four members of its Board of Directors and to
ratify the selection of the firm of Schechter, Dokken, Kanter, Andrews &
Selcer, Ltd. as independent auditors for the fiscal year ending September
30, 2009. In conjunction with the mailing of the proxy statement for the
Annual Meeting and the Annual Report for the fiscal year ended September
30, 2008, the following letter to the shareholders of GreenMan was
included.
To Our Shareholders:
I write this letter to you today on the heels of announcing the successful
divestiture of our tire recycling operations for almost $28 million in cash
during one of the most difficult financial markets in history. The sale has
enabled us to payoff virtually all of our debt and retain more than $8
million for future initiatives. GreenMan today is stronger, more viable
and, most importantly, more focused than ever on increasing shareholder
value.
During the first quarter of fiscal 2008, our Board of Directors concluded
we would be unlikely to meet the increasing demands of our primary credit
facility in October 2008 or to retire the debt when it matured in June
2009. Accordingly, we began to actively explore strategic alternatives. In
September 2008, we executed an agreement to sell substantially all the
assets of our tire recycling business to the largest tire recycling company
in the United States. On November 17, 2008, we completed the sale for
approximately $27.7 million in cash. We used approximately $17.7 million of
the proceeds of this sale to retire certain transaction related obligations
and other debt, leaving approximately $10 million of available cash before
transaction related income taxes and other costs estimated to be
approximately $1.6 million. We believe that the sale of the tire recycling
business was in the best interests of our shareholders because it provided
us with substantial funds to pay off a majority of our outstanding
indebtedness and allows us to focus on growing our molded rubber products
and renewable fuel/alternative energy business units.
During fiscal 2008, we invested heavily in sales and marketing efforts at
our Welch Products subsidiary to promote Welch's patented products and
broaden their market presence. These efforts were successful as evidenced
by Welch's 90% growth in revenue as compared to the prior year. In February
2009, we renamed Welch to Green Tech Products, Inc. which we believe more
accurately describes the nature of our new product-line extension strategy
beyond playground safety tiles and equipment. We are currently evaluating
other molded products to be used in highway anti-vegetation and field-turf
encasement applications. We will continue to market our playground products
under our National Playground Compliance Group name which has a strong
brand name recognition within the industry. It has been, and will continue
for the near term to be, a tougher road to profitability than originally
expected for this group given current economic realities and lower
tax-based state discretionary spending levels. However, we are optimistic
that the marketing investments made during fiscal 2008 and our continuing
efforts will help to mitigate the full impact of the recession on this
coming fiscal year.
In September 2008, we announced the formation of a new subsidiary, GreenMan
Renewable Fuel and Alternative Energy, Inc. Our primary objective for this
subsidiary is to pursue licenses, joint ventures and long-term contracts
focused on the commercialization of existing and late-stage development
products and processes in green-based technologies including renewable
fuels and alternative energy. There has been significant global investment
made over the past several years in the area of renewable fuels,
alternative energy and clean-tech technologies and we do not see this
momentum slowing down. In addition, we are extremely encouraged by the
current Federal administration's strong emphasis on expanding and
supporting renewable fuel and alternative energy initiatives. Our initial
efforts to date have focused on rubber-based opportunities such as tire
gasification but we have recently redirected our primary focus into several
other non-rubber based sectors including the conversion of waste streams
into bio-fuels or alternative energy which we believe has large commercial
market potential.
While we accept the fact that we are living in unprecedented economic
times, we believe GreenMan is well positioned to weather this difficult
period given our strong cash position and virtually debt-free balance
sheet. We look forward to the coming months with great anticipation and on
behalf of myself and the GreenMan Board of Directors thank you for your
continued support.
Sincerely,
Lyle Jensen
President and Chief Executive Officer
GreenMan Technologies, Inc.
About GreenMan Technologies
GreenMan Technologies pursues technological processes and unique marketing
programs to transform recycled materials into renewable fuel, alternative
energy, recycled feedstock, and innovative recycled products. Through the
company's Green Tech Products subsidiary, the company develops and markets
branded products and services that provide schools and other political
subdivisions viable solutions for safety, compliance, and accessibility.
Our Renewable Fuels and Alternative Energy subsidiary supports our
strategic objective to pursue opportunities to commercialize green-based
technologies that convert waste feedstock into bio-fuels and other
waste-to-energy solutions. To learn more about all of the companies,
please visit the following websites:
www.greenman.biz,
www.welchproducts.com,
www.nssi-usa.com
"Safe Harbor" Statement: Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
With the exception of the historical information contained in this news
release, the matters described herein contain "forward-looking" statements
that involve risks and uncertainties that may individually or collectively
impact the matters herein described, including but not limited to the facts
that we have sold the tire recycling operations which have historically
generated substantially all our revenue and that we will be prohibited from
competing in that business on a regional basis until 2013, the risk that we
may not be able to increase the revenue of our Welch division, the risks
that we may not be able to identify and acquire complementary businesses
and that we may not be able successfully to integrate any such acquisitions
with our current businesses, the risk that we may not be able to return to
sustained profitability, the risk that we may not be able to secure
additional funding necessary to grow our business, on acceptable terms or
at all, the risk that, if we have to sell securities in order to obtain
financing, the rights of our current stockholders may be adversely
affected, and the risks of possible adverse effects of economic,
governmental, seasonal and/or other factors outside the control of the
Company, which are detailed from time to time in the Company's SEC reports,
including the Annual Report on Form 10-KSB for the fiscal period ended
September 30, 2008. The Company disclaims any intent or obligation to
update these "forward-looking" statements.
Contact Information: Contacts:
Chuck Coppa
CFO
or
Lyle Jensen
CEO
GreenMan Technologies
781-224-2411