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TWST: Can we start with a quick introduction to Davis Service Group (London: DVSG.L)?

Mr. Dye: Davis Service is a holding company of differing rental operations, covering a number of countries in Europe and in the United States. It came about as a merger from a company called Sunlight, which is a textile rental company here in the UK, into a company called Godfrey Davis in the late 80s. The Davis operations, as then, fell away. Sunlight, the textile rental operation, continued on and in the 90s the tool hire operations and building systems businesses were expanded. So as we move through into 2003, we now have a group that has rental operations in textile maintenance, tool hire and building systems. Two major events happened in the last couple of years, which were quite significant shifts in the group strategy. Up until 2001 the group had been very UK oriented; but in 2001 the HSS tool hire business bought into a business in the United States; and then in 2002 we bought a major textile maintenance company called Sophus Berendsen, which, although based in Copenhagen in Denmark, covers a number of continental countries throughout Europe.

TWST: Which is now your largest market, geographically?

Mr. Dye: It is still inside the UK, but that is changing especially as the continental markets grow.

TWST: Is that where you would expect the most significant growth as a result of the Sophus Berendsen acquisition?

Mr. Dye: Yes. One of the reasons why we bought Sophus Berendsen was that the markets which it operates in for textile maintenance on the continent are growing more then the UK is; and secondly, there are non-organic development opportunities in these continental countries and expanding from there.

TWST: Has the acquisition met your expectations thus far?

Mr. Dye: Yes, it is definitely on plan; if anything, slightly ahead of plan.

TWST: Can you briefly outline what you see as your main objectives over the next 12 or 24 months?

Mr. Dye: We have got to deliver on the Berendsen acquisition. The Berendsen acquisition last year was an extremely important strategic move for us. It has brought a very substantial size of business to the group. It was fairly priced; it was a public company on the Danish Stock Exchange, and our investors are waiting and trusting that we will deliver. A significant margin improvement has been promised from the 8.75 % that we inherited in 2001. They are looking for us to get it up to 12% by 2004 and they are hoping that we will get it higher than that. So that has got to be delivered.

TWST: How was the acquisition initially received by the investment community?

Mr. Dye: The investment community realized that it was a bold step for Davis to take, and so there was a degree of “let’s hope they have got this right attitude.” We did ask them for some new investment money, and we borrowed quite a lot of money from our bankers. But the results that we produced in February of this year for 2002 gave people the impression that we did know what we were doing and we were on the way. I think if we were to look at the analyst reports on us, they are broadly of the view that we are continuing to do that, albeit in a slightly more difficult trading period than the one that we had 12 months ago.

TWST: As a summary, when you have a chance to talk to investors what are the three or four best reasons you give for them to take a closer look at the company?

Mr. Dye: Competence in the operations that we manage - a safe pair of hands (what we say we are going to deliver, we will deliver). Ethically very strong, high levels of trust etc. A well supported progressive dividend policy. I think these are the sort of things that come to mind.