I have a tendency at the conclusion of an old year and the beginning of a new year to become reflective--such is not the case for 1998.

The prospect of the UST deadline of December 22, 1998, is no longer a rumor--it is a fact, and while we are in a position to benefit from this tremendous demand, we must pause and consider a few important items.

1. This year we will meet new customers who formerly used USTs in their business and must abandon their usual method of fuel storage. They may require some additional time in explaining the difference between UST and AST technology--let’s not shortchange them to get to the next sale!

2. This year we will have the opportunity to service some of our longstanding customers who are converting from USTs or committed to our technology at the early stage and are simply fulfilling their long-term site planning. These clients deserve the same enthusiasm for their hundredth purchase as they did on their first. Furthermore, we have made some minor improvements in recent years and we should not take-for-granted that long-term owner/operators understand the advantages of our communication port or the UL listing for venting by form-of-construction.

An additional reminder for servicing our long-term customers is to be certain that they receive our ConVault owner’s manual so that they can maintain the performance of the assembly. If they purchased their initial units prior to publication of this document, we should remember to provide it at this time.

Two additional factors to anticipate in the groundswell of demand which will carry through the UST deadline date:

1. We are earning tomorrow’s customer loyalty and trust today.

2. The increase in purchase orders/production requirements CANNOT be the basis for us to reduce our quality control program. No viable product is ever justified for compromising quality in order to meet deadlines. I charged our Vice President of Engineering, Mr. John Ekhtiar, to insure that we maintain our historical quality control. He will be scheduled to inspect each of our 33 production facilities this year in addition to the quarterly (minimal) inspections conducted by both UL and ULC. Our ConVault licensing agreements make it necessary for Mr. Ekhtiar to be even stricter than UL or ULC in his reviews.