NEWS - Plextek lands major contract with Lojack Corporation to design and supply new stolen vehicle recovery technology

Plextek's electronics design services include:FPGA design, ESCAN Radar, MMIC design, GPRS design, Communications product design, Microwave design Defence electronics, Electronic product design, RF design, DSP design, Telemetry system, System Integration,Communications system design, Due diligence

Press Release

Plextek lands major contract with LoJack Corporation to design and supply new stolen vehicle recovery technology

New design promises improved help to UK police in fight against vehicle theft

Plextek Ltd, the Cambridge UK based electronics design and consultancy company has announced a contract with US company, LoJack Corporation (NASDAQ NMS: "LOJN") to develop its next generation of the international Stolen Vehicle Recovery technology, operated in the UK by TRACKER Network (UK) Ltd. The system works by vehicles having a radio transceiver installed with which the police can track stolen vehicles directly.

The new design is based on an operating platform that will be scalable and flexible. It will support Global Positioning System (GPS) and cellular technologies that, in the future, will allow LoJack to develop new products that combine GPS and/or cellular based communications with its time tested RF based stolen vehicle recovery technology. In addition, the new design will result in reduced size of the LoJack unit, that will allow it to be installed in even more covert locations in the consumer's vehicle than at present. The platform will cover various specification and country variants enabling greater manufacturing efficiencies.

Colin Smithers, managing director of Plextek, said: "This is Plextek's largest ever contract and comes as a welcome respite after the recent global technology recession that has generally affected design houses. The initial manufacturing period is for three years and the contract is likely to double Plextek's turnover by 2005."

He continued: "Having worked first with TRACKER and then with LoJack on several projects over the past decade, we are delighted to have been selected to design and supply its core product. LoJack has always been a leader in stolen vehicle recovery and we look forward to helping it take its technology to the next level."

In making the announcement, Ronald J. Rossi, LoJack chairman, said: "We have entered into this agreement as part of our commitment to deliver the most effective and most advanced vehicle security solutions and location based services. We selected Plextek owing to the unique spread of relevant communications technologies that it has at its disposal, combined with the speed, cost and introduction to manufacture capabilities which it has already demonstrated to us. This investment in the new LoJack System is expected to positively affect our profitability in 2005 and future years."

Issued 18/02/2004