Aligned For Growth

To Our Valued Distributors and Sales Partners:

Like many companies in the past few months, Blastrac was also forced to justify our operational expenses in North America. This usually creates uncertainty and widespread rumors of our demise; here is an update about your brand, the company, and our shared initiatives.

First and most importantly, Blastrac is not going anywhere; to the contrary our investment base and shareholders are more excited today about the emerging markets than ever. We reduced sales and operating expenses to offset rising raw materials, commodities and other related expenses. These reductions allowed us to invest in the increased capability of our facility in Oklahoma City. New material handling equipment, a multi-equipment CNC machining center, precision cutting equipment, and other factory enhancements will help us shorten our supply chain and improve our quality control as we transition outsourced operations into our facility. The before mentioned strategic alignment enabled us to avoid another price increase that was previously scheduled for this fall. Blastrac revenue is down only slightly over this same period last year (5%) and our position in several key markets such as infrastructure and petrochemical are keeping our plants in The Netherlands and the USA at full capacity.

During this restructuring we made some changes to enhance our ability to service our equipment and customers. We have promoted Jonn Rippman, our current National Training Manager, to Inside Sales Manager. Jonn is creating a new sales and technical support center to replace our current Customer Service Center. Our goal is to have one phone number for all your needs regardless of subject matter. We will announce this new team on November 3rd. We have also promoted Lisa Beals to our Shipping and Warehouse Manager. Those of you who know Lisa will welcome the new level of professionalism and competency in this department, and those of you who don't will come to enjoy these attributes. Finally, we have promoted Jason Root to Specialized Distribution Manager. Jason's 15 years of product knowledge, organization and determination will serve well for your daily activities and growth. His primary focus will be to enhance your profitability by the development and execution of pricing programs, training sessions, and immediate sales support for your staff.

Blastrac still has the largest outside sales force in the Surface Preparation Market in North America with support locations in Atlanta, San Diego, and Ontario which complement our OKC manufacturing operation. We have recently invested in the inventory of several high production machines to a national rental fleet for re-rent in support of our sales partners. The equipment will be available to customers who cannot be approved for financing under the new terms and cautious economy.

To select partners and with specific products, we are preparing to introduce new equipment in advance of World of Concrete 2009. This week, in concert with the equipment releases, we are offering exciting new financing terms to capitalize on a difficult lending market. We will launch an aggressive marketing campaign in November that will place new products, job case studies, and SEO placement that was reduced over the last couple of years.

We will start a Distribution product webinar series in November to allow your key staff to log on to a secure conference about specials, new products, and marketing conditions. We will announce this in the coming weeks as we take an extra effort to drive information into the field.

Our outlook is the same as yours, cautious but optimistic that we can do it better than the rest. Blastrac is the leader in this industry and it is our responsibility to bring more resources and support to the market during economic challenges. We see this disruption in the financial markets as an opportunity for our partners and Blastrac to rise above the confusion and provide pricing and programs that make sense for our contactors. There is no better time to point out that Blastrac's resale value and quality remains the highest in the industry. These attributes, coupled with our world class training operation in OKC and the best sales staffs in North America, provide an immediate advantage over the competition.

Finally, there were many other changes made during the last six weeks that were not discussed in detail. If you have any questions or concerns please call or write us immediately; in the meantime, look for aggressive specials, affordable terms on equipment, innovative new products, and an increase in the advertising presence of Blastrac We are committed to you and our collective customers, we expect these new tools and programs to drive sales and sustain growth in your business.

We thank you for your past and future business and look forward to seeing everyone at WOC!