Agreement with Poltrona Frau

RNS Number : 5689V

Directa Plus PLC

10 August 2020

 

10 August 2020

Directa Plus plc

("Directa Plus" or the "Company")

Letter of Intent signed with Poltrona Frau S.p.A.

Directa Plus (AIM: DCTA), a leading producer and supplier of graphene nanoplatelets based products for use in consumer and industrial markets, is pleased to announce that it has signed a Letter of Intent with Poltrona Frau S.p.A, a global leader in high-end furniture manufacture for residential, bespoke and commercial use.

Part of Haworth Inc., an American multinational corporation and global leader in office furniture manufacture, which is headquartered in Michigan, with 7,500 employees and annual revenues of c.US$2 billion, Poltrona Frau owns a number of luxury furniture brands, including Poltrona Frau, Cassina, Cappellini, Luxury Living and others.

Poltrona Frau is also active the automotive industry as the main supplier of leather components to Ferrari and collaborates other prestigious car makers such as Maserati, Lamborghini, McLaren, Lotus, Aston Martin, Bentley, Rolls Royce, JLR and Porsche.

In addition, Poltrona Frau plays an important role in the aviation sector as leather furniture supplier for First and Business class cabins of the world's leading airlines and also in the marine sector as the main leather supplier of Ferretti Group and Azimut Group.

The collaboration between Directa Plus and Poltrona Frau has been signed for an initial two years with the aim of developing a new sustainable and high tech leather enhanced by the properties of Directa Plus's proprietary graphene technology. It is anticipated that G+® enhanced leather will provide antimicrobial and antiviral properties, improved thermal regulation, electrical conductivity, and mechanical properties such as as abrasion resistance and UV resilience.

After the product development phase, Directa Plus and Poltrona Frau will work together to promote and commercialise the Poltrona Frau Leather enhanced with G+® Graphene Plus to customers of Poltrona Frau across all of their key sectors, giving rise to an enduring industrial and commercial partnership.

Giulio Cesareo, Chief Executive of Directa Plus, commented:

"Poltrona Frau is widely recognised as a global leader in luxury leather furnishings, from armchairs, to sports cars, to yachts, and we are delighted to have signed an agreement to work together.

"High quality leather has been a material of choice for designers and manufacturers for centuries due to its aesthetic and mechanical properties. By working together, Directa Plus and Poltrona Frau can combine knowledge and experience to bring new qualities to leather and enhance existing ones.

"This agreement is an excellent example of Directa's commercialisation strategy working well, to help bring the benefits of graphene to existing markets by working alongside existing industrial leaders."

For further information please visit http://www.directa-plus.com/ or contact:

Directa Plus plc	[phone]
Giulio Cesareo, CEO
Marco Ferrari, CFO
Cenkos Securities plc (Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker)	[phone]
Neil McDonald Pete Lynch
N+1 Singer (Joint Broker)	[phone]
Mark Taylor
Tavistock (Financial PR and IR)	[phone]
Simon Hudson, Edward Lee

About Directa Plus

Our focus is principally on the two sectors in which we have strong commercial advantage through developed and launched products and a technological lead: environmental (based on our Grafysorber® product) and textiles (based on our G+ products).  In addition, we will continue to pursue opportunities in elastomers and composites (including tyres and asphalt), also using our G+ products.  All our products are hypoallergenic, non-toxic and sustainably produced.

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