Lakeland Industries Continues to Experience Strong International Demand With Third Major Contract in October: Financial News

Lakeland Industries Continues to Experience Strong International Demand With Third Major Contract in October
Thursday October 23, 2008 8:00 am ET

RONKONKOMA, NY--(MARKET WIRE)--Oct 23, 2008 -- Lakeland Industries, Inc. (LAKE - News), a market leader in protective apparel, today announced that, through its recently acquired Brazilian subsidiary Qualytextil, the Company has received a contract worth approximately US$700,000 from Neo Energy Group, a major holding company in Brazil owning several electric utilities, for customized protective clothing. This award builds upon existing business with Lakeland and is representative of the high-caliber customers doing business with Qualytextil. Neo Energy will be using Lakeland garments for fire protection and electric arc exposure.

"We continue to experience robust business conditions at our high growth international operation," said Chris Ryan, the CEO of Lakeland. "Today's announcement marks the third major contract that we have received in the month of October from Brazil. Moreover, we believe that in the face of slower economic conditions in many developed nations around the world, the strategy we began implementing nearly two years ago to diversify our revenue base outside of the United States is gaining meaningful traction, particularly in Latin America, China and India where GDP growth will slow but will still be considered robust by U.S. standards. We expect continued strong unit growth from our international operations."

With an in-house sales force of 20 employees and nearly 30 outside sales representatives, Qualytextil covers the entire country of Brazil, selling directly to end users. Qualytextil markets products to major state-owned companies and agencies and the main oil and chemical companies. The Brazilian operations, including manufacturing, sales and marketing, warehousing, and distribution, benefit from State provided tax incentives, favorable labor rates, and proximity to economical transportation for local and international distribution of garments. Lakeland expects its Brazilian sales and operating earnings to remain strong in their local currency for the Company's fiscal third quarter ended October 31, 2008. Exchange rate fluctuations, such as the recent strengthening of the U.S. dollar against the Brazilian Real, may impact the Company's consolidated financial results.

About Lakeland Industries, Inc.:

Lakeland Industries, Inc. (LAKE - News) manufactures and sells a comprehensive line of safety garments and accessories for the industrial protective clothing market. The Company's products are sold by a direct sales force and through independent sales representatives to a network of over 1000 safety and mill supply distributors. These distributors in turn supply end user industrial customers such as chemical/petrochemical, automobile, steel, glass, construction, smelting, janitorial, pharmaceutical and high technology electronics manufacturers, as well as hospitals and laboratories. In addition, Lakeland supplies federal, state, and local government agencies, fire and police departments, airport crash rescue units, the Department of Defense, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and may other federal and state agencies.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including statements, without limitation, regarding our expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future. We intend that such forward-looking statements be subject to the safe-harbor provided by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements that are not historical are forward-looking. Forward-looking statements may relate to, but are not limited to, the effect of agreements described above but also on our international and total revenues and the size and growth of the Brazilian and International markets for protective apparel. Such forward-looking statements are based upon current information and expectations. These estimates and statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict.

For more information concerning Lakeland, please visit the Company online at www.lakeland.com.