IMS/Disposal

600 Group PLC
31 January 2008



                                                                 31 January 2008

                               The 600 Group PLC
                         ("600 Group" or the "Company")

                   Interim Management Statement and Disposal

The 600 Group PLC continues to make positive progress in the implementation of
its strategy, which evolved from the strategic review undertaken in 2006.

Sales for the three months ended 29 December 2007, the third quarter of its
financial year 2007 - 08, increased by 8 per cent to £21m over the comparable
period in 2006. Added to the results announced in the Interim Report, overall
sales for the nine months ended 29 December 2007 increased by 9 per cent to £62m
(2006: £57m). After adjustment for the disposal of Erickson Machine Tools Inc.
in April 2007 underlying sales increased by 14 per cent. Underlying order intake
increased by 11 per cent compared to the first nine months of last year, with
substantial improvements in our UK and North American businesses.

600 Group's machine tool business supplies a wide range of industries, including
aerospace, oil services, medical, general engineering and automotive. This
breadth of its customer base has provided the support to maintain the businesses
momentum which, the Board believes, will continue into the next financial year.

The development of its relationships with Chinese partners continues to form a
key part of 600 Group's strategy in this business. Agreement in principal has
been reached with Chinese machine tool partner, The Dalian Machine Tool Group
(DMTG), to establish a 50-50 joint venture, based in Germany, to market and
distribute 'Dalian' branded products across the whole of Europe. The final
agreement is expected to be completed over the next few weeks. The operation is
not anticipated to have a material financial impact on 600 Group's results until
the financial year commencing 29 March 2009.

600 Group has made excellent progress in the development of new products and
technology platforms within its Electrox laser marking business. As a result,
sales of this business are growing strongly year-on-year with particularly good
progress made in the Group's home UK market. We are implementing our plans for
the next phase of the development of this business including the low cost
sourcing of components from the Far East.

The Company's technologies division is experiencing very high demand and
initiatives are underway to further improve output, production efficiencies and
profitability of this division.
The South African operation has maintained the improvement in its performance
despite political and economic pressures in its market.

Given the current state of the commercial property market and the strength of
600 Group's balance sheet, the Company has, for the time being, decided not to
proceed with the sale and leaseback of its Letchworth property.

Outlook
Our trading outlook remains in line with the Board's expectations. Order intake
across the Group's major markets, including Europe, North America and South
Africa, has remained good and the Board anticipates that overall revenues in the
second half of the current financial year will be somewhat higher than those
recorded in the first half. Margins have remained in line with the Board's
expectations. Additional one-off costs of approximately £300,000, relating
principally to the unsolicited approach from Precision Technologies Group
Limited, have been incurred in the second half of the year to date.

600 Group anticipates that its results for the 52-week period ended 29 March
2008 will be released in early June 2008.

Disposal
In its Interim Report, released on 16 November 2007, the Company announced a
restructuring of 600 Group's Canadian operations. On 30 January 2008, the
Company entered into an agreement (the "Agreement") to sell, subject to
fulfilment of the conditions in the Agreement, certain of the assets, including
the land, buildings and inventory, of 600 Group Equipment Limited, its Canadian
distribution operation, to Semcan Inc. Through its Forward Precision Tools
division, Semcan specialises in the supply and service of high quality CNC
machine tools for Canadian manufacturers.

The consideration for this disposal, which is payable on 31 January 2008, is
approximately C$2.98 million (£1.5 million) and is at least equal to the net
asset value of the assets being sold. C$2.38 million (£1.2 million) of the
consideration is payable in cash with the balance of C$0.6 million (£0.3
million) in the form of promissory note which can be redeemed for cash on 31
January 2009. The net consideration will be used to reduce the debt in the
Company's North American operations.

The Company has also entered into an agreement with Forward Precision Tools to
distribute its full range of machine tools and accessories in the provinces of
Ontario and Quebec. In addition, 600 Group will be opening a new sales office in
Ontario in early February 2008 which will focus on supporting its 600 Solutions
business. 600 Solutions delivers a broad range of high performance machine tools
to Canada and, in conjunction with Forward Precision Tools, the Board believes
the Company's capability to serve the Canadian market has been strengthened.

Exchange rate used: £1 = C$1.99.

Enquiries:

The 600 Group PLC                      Telephone: [phone]
Andrew Dick, Group Chief Executive
Martyn Wakeman, Group Finance Director

Hudson Sandler                         Telephone: [phone]
Nick Lyon
Wendy Baker

Altium                                 Telephone: [phone]
Ben Thorne
Tim Richardson

Notes to Editors:

The 600 Group PLC is an international group, manufacturing and marketing machine 
tools, machine tool accessories, lasers and other engineering products.

The Group operate from some 30 locations world-wide and sell its products around 
the world. Its international marketing and distribution network handles both 
Group products and those of other manufacturers.

Website: www.600group.com






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