Re. Tristel Italia srl

Tristel PLC
06 February 2008



                                  TRISTEL plc



                      Establishment of Tristel Italia srl



Tristel plc ('Tristel'), the AIM listed provider of infection and contamination
control products, announces that it has taken a 20% interest in Tristel Italia
srl ('TI'), a company incorporated in Italy and established to commercialise
Tristel's product portfolio in the country. TI was incorporated on 9 October
2007. Prior to Tristel becoming a shareholder TI was wholly-owned by Mr Michael
Donaldson.



Mr Donaldson, aged 51, was Country Manager, Italy and Greece, for Fuji Hunt
Photographic Chemicals until June 2006. During the past eighteen months Mr
Donaldson has been assessing the potential of the Italian market for Tristel. He
is resident in Milan.



Tristel is providing a loan facility to TI to fund its early stage development
and has an option to increase its shareholding in TI from 20% to 51%. Paul
Swinney, Chief Executive of Tristel, assumes the position of President of TI and
Michael Donaldson its Managing Director.



Commenting on Tristel's involvement in TI and the Italian market, Paul Swinney
explains:



 'The development of our export business is proceeding well. In all the export
markets which we are currently penetrating we are working with distributors.
Whilst this model is highly effective its limitations can be exposed as the
Tristel product portfolio continues to expand. We address specific niches within
the hospital market and it can be difficult to identify a distributor capable of
exploiting them all successfully.



'Michael has been known to us for many years and is well qualified to build the
Tristel business in Italy. The Italian hospital market has many similarities to
the United Kingdom's. We are very encouraged to have already secured TI's first
customers in the Ear, Nose and Throat market, an area we dominate in our home
market.



'This investment for international expansion represents a departure from our
present export market development model. However, the investment is modest and
we believe that a direct presence in Italy will accelerate significantly our
penetration of this major European market.'



Contacts:


Tristel plc

Paul Swinney, Chief Executive                     Tel: [phone]

Daniel Stewart & Company Plc
Oliver Rigby                                      Tel: [phone]

Parkgreen Communications Ltd                      Tel: [phone]
Paul McManus                                      Mob: [phone]
                                                  [e-mail]










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