Chairman's AGM Statement

600 GROUP PLC
3 September 1999

                                       
                     CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT TO THE 1999 AGM
                                       
As forecast in the Preliminary Results announced on 14 June, the Group has
continued to be affected by the difficult trading conditions currently being
experienced by all machine tool suppliers throughout the international machine
tool market.  Therefore, as anticipated, it is likely that the Group will
incur a loss in the first half of the current financial year before improving
in the second half in line with forecast growth trends in our major markets.

We have taken a number of actions to reduce the short-term impact of the
unfavourable market conditions that have persisted for the past twelve
months:-

     - numbers employed in the Group have been reduced by approximately one
       quarter, involving redundancies at the majority of the Group's         
       operating sites, including the withdrawal from manufacturing in South  
       Africa and the closure of the GCS (Steels) business in Leeds;

     - in line with our declared strategy, we have increased the allocation of
       resources for the development and expansion of our product range and   
       moved directly into the French and German markets by the acquisition of
       new subsidiaries in those countries;

     - and we are investigating opportunities for collaborating with other
       international machine tool companies to improve our trading prospects  
       in the medium term.

We are continuing to execute our consistent and focused strategy of business
development and expansion, whilst maintaining a strong financial position.  We
expect that, as a result of this approach, we will be well placed to benefit
from the forecast improvements in the trading environment.

Enquiries:     Tony Sweeten, Group Chief Executive, The 600 Group PLC
               Tel: [phone]

               John Fussey, Group Finance Director, The 600 Group PLC
               Tel: [phone]