SMF Energy Corporation, (NASDAQ:FUEL) (the “Company”),
a leading provider of specialized transportation and distribution
services for petroleum products and chemicals, today announced that it
has entered into an agreement with Enviro Tech International, Inc., the
manufacturer of DrySolv™, to be the exclusive
distributor and sales agent of its patented environmentally friendly “Green”
dry cleaning solvent, soap, and spotting chemicals in the states of
Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, South
Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.
DrySolv™ is a non-hazardous, non-chlorinated,
non-flammable and environmentally friendly direct alternative cleaner to
Perchloroethylene (PERC) and other hazardous or flammable solvents
predominately used in the dry cleaning business today. The use of DrySolv™
enhances employee safety, produces non-hazardous waste, reduces
operating costs, and delivers exceptional cleaning performance when
compared to the traditional use of PERC and related cleaning processes.
SMF has acted as a non-exclusive distributor of DrySolv™
and related products in the states of Texas, Florida, Georgia and North
Carolina since October 2007.
Richard E. Gathright, President and CEO, stated,“We
are truly excited about becoming the exclusive distributor of this
unique and proprietary product in a total of nine states, particularly
California, which is a leader in environmental legislation and consumes
an estimated 40% of all dry cleaning solvents in the United States. We
are confident that the dry cleaning industry is ready for an alternative
to the hazardous chemicals commonly used today, especially in light of
the increasing environmental and regulatory requirements that could lead
to a drastic reduction, or even the elimination, of these hazardous
products over the next few years.”
Gathright continued, “The dry cleaning
establishment count in the US is estimated at approximately 33,000
locations. Based on studies conducted over the last ten years by
multiple federal and state agencies, including the Census Bureau, EPA
and CARB, of this number, roughly 82%, or 27,000 locations, use PERC,
widely acknowledged to be a hazardous substance, in one or more machines
on a daily basis. It is estimated that each of these establishments
purchases between 5 and 55 gallons per month of cleaning solvent(s) and
related products, depending on machine size, age, volume (thru put) and
location. The territory covered by our expanded and exclusive agreement
with Enviro Tech includes more than 10,000 of these establishments
nationwide, or roughly 37% of the machines convertible from PERC to the
DrySolv™ solvent, soap and spotting
chemicals. This translates to a market potential of approximately
2,500,000 gallons on an annualized basis.”
Gathright concluded,“We believe in the bright
future for this product and the contribution it can make to our revenues
and profits. Our implementations in Texas and Florida, to date, have
generated great enthusiasm with facility owners/operators about these
products and their potential to reduce overall operating costs, improve
the workplace and benefit the environment. With this new agreement, we
are dramatically accelerating our marketing efforts to take advantage of
this significant opportunity.”
About SMF Energy Corporation
(NASDAQ:FUEL)
The Company is a leading provider of petroleum and chemical product
distribution services, transportation logistics and emergency response
services to the trucking, manufacturing, construction, shipping,
utility, energy, chemical, dry cleaning, telecommunication and
government services industries. The Company provides its services and
products through 26 locations in the ten states of Alabama, California,
Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South
Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. The broad range of services the Company
offers its customers includes commercial mobile and bulk fueling; the
packaging, distribution and sale of lubricants; integrated out-sourced
fuel management; transportation logistics and emergency response
services. The Company’s fleet of custom
specialized tank wagons, tractor-trailer transports, box trucks and
customized flatbed vehicles delivers diesel fuel and gasoline to
customers’ locations on a regularly scheduled
or as needed basis, refueling vehicles and equipment, re-supplying
fixed-site and temporary bulk storage tanks, and emergency power
generation systems; and distributes a wide variety of specialized
petroleum products, lubricants and chemicals to our customers. In
addition, the Company’s fleet of special duty
tractor-trailer units provides heavy haul transportation services over
short and long distances to customers requiring the movement of
over-sized or over-weight equipment and manufactured products. More
information on the Company is available at www.mobilefueling.com.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release includes "forward-looking statements" within the
meaning of the safe harbor provision of the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. For example, predictions or statements of
belief or expectation concerning future sales of DrySolv™,
and the potential for further growth of the market for Enviro Tech’s
products are all “forward looking statements”
which should not be relied upon. Such forward-looking statements are
based on the current beliefs of the Company and its management based on
information known to them at this time. Because these statements depend
on various assumptions as to future events, including but not limited to
those assumptions noted in the “Management’s
Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operation”
section in the Company’s Form 10-Q for the
quarter ended March 31, 2008, they should not be relied on by
shareholders or other persons in evaluating the Company. Although
management believes that the assumptions reflected in such
forward-looking statements are reasonable, actual results could differ
materially from those projected. In addition, there are numerous risks
and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ from those
anticipated by the Company, including but not limited to those cited in
the “Risk Factors”
section of the Company’s Form 10-K for the
year ended June 30, 2007 and in the Form 10-Q for the quarter ended
December 31, 2007.
|