Wednsday, July 28th 1999

IRIZAR, as a result of its candidature for the E.Q.A-99, and after the visit of the evaluators in June, is among the 13 best big companies in Europe (not SMEs):

1. Alstom Transporte, S.A. - Spain
2. IRIZAR - Spain
3. BT Northern - Ireland
4. BT Payphones - UK
5. Yellow Pages - U.K.
6. Eczacibasi Yapi Gerecleri San. Ve Tic. A.S. - Turkey
7. TEE - Turk Elektrik Endustrisi A.S. - Turkey
8. ELAIS - Greece
9. Honeywell Europe- Belgium
10. Joh. Vaillant GmbH u Co - Germany
11. Siemens AG Power Generation Group - Germany
12. Infineon (Siemens Semiconductors) - Germany
13. Sollac - France

This makes IRIZAR the first big company in the Basque Country (it was also the first to receive the Basque Government's Golden Q Award for Quality) and in Spain, not part of a multinational group, to achieve this distinction at the highest standard in the practice of European Business Excellence, which the E.F.Q.M. represents.