Britain's Henry Booth Group Opens North American Division; HBG International, Inc. to Serve Transit Companies in North and South America.

Business Editors

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 6, 2000

The Henry Booth Group, a British security printing company specializing in magnetic ticketing for transit authorities, has chosen Atlanta as its North American headquarters.

Allen Davidson, formerly Executive Vice President of Norprint USA, was named President and CEO of HBG International, Inc. Davidson has an extensive history of providing print solutions to the mass transit market.

Matthew McCoy was appointed Vice President, Sales and Marketing. McCoy joins HBGI after ten years in sales management with a major international brewer.

Founded in East Yorkshire, England in 1906, Henry Booth has been the primary provider of magnetic tickets to the British rail system since 1986. The company sells over 300 million transit tickets in Britain and more than 1.5 billion tickets annually to transit systems worldwide.

"I am very optimistic about our new magnetic card. Recent U.S. testing proved our 'first pass read rate' -- where the transit rider 'swipes' his/her card for entry -- far superior to existing cards," said Davidson.

In 1994 the company earned the distinguished ISO 2001 award for its Quality Management system and in 1998 was certified to ISO 14001 for its Environmental Management system. "By being environmentally concerned and 'walking that walk,' we reinforce our commitment to public transit as the pollution solution to congested urban traffic," said Davidson.

"Our specialized printing capacity allows us to expand beyond the transit industry to include parking lot tickets, hotel and airline luggage tags, specialty forms and smart cards. We will have announcements soon concerning our involvement in those areas," said McCoy.