LATHAM, N.Y. and GREENE, N.Y., Aug. 4, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Plug Power Inc. (Nasdaq:PLUG), a leader in providing clean, reliable energy solutions, and The Raymond Corporation, a global provider of material handling solutions, participated in a ribbon cutting event at United Natural Foods, Inc.'s 352,000 square-foot distribution center today. During the tour portion of the event, Plug Power and Raymond demonstrated the seamless integration of Plug Power's GenDrive™ fuel cell unit into UNFI's full fleet of Raymond® electric lift trucks.
The ribbon cutting event celebrated UNFI's commitment to adopt a hydrogen economy at its Sarasota, FL facility. In addition to eliminating time for battery charging, changing and maintenance, UNFI anticipates the use of fuel cells will be a key component in enhancing sustainability goals.
"As North America's largest organic and natural food distributor, UNFI prides itself in its positive attitude toward building a sustainable future at the local and national levels," said Andy Marsh, CEO at Plug Power. "It's quite rewarding for Plug Power, knowing that our GenDrive fuel cell units help UNFI as it continues to achieve operational excellence. UNFI understands the efficiencies that are gained by using alternative energy power solutions, such as Plug Power's fuel cell technology."
"UNFI is the first organization to install Raymond's new fuel cell-compatible orderpicker, which features a 21-inch battery box to easily accommodate the fuel cell," said Frank Devlin, segment manager for Raymond. "UNFI is able to maximize the uptime of its fleet as the Raymond truck and GenDrive fuel cell maintains constant power in all working environments, specifically cold storage areas."
The event attracted several VIP guests championing the fuel cell-powered fork lift discussion. Speakers included Thomas Dziki, Senior Vice President of Sustainable Development for UNFI; David Matthews, President, Eastern Region for UNFI; and Shannon Staub, Sarasota County Commissioner, District 3.
About Plug Power Inc.
The architects of modern fuel cell technology, Plug Power revolutionized the industry with cost-effective power solutions that increase productivity, lower operating costs and reduce carbon footprints. Long-standing relationships with industry leaders forged the path for our key accounts, including Wegmans, Whole Foods, and FedEx Freight. With more than 1,000 units in the field and over 1.5 million hours of runtime, Plug Power manufactures tomorrow's incumbent power solutions today. Visit us at http://www.plugpower.com/">www.plugpower.com.
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About The Raymond Corporation
The Raymond Corporation is a global provider of material handling solutions that improve space utilization and productivity, with lower cost of operation and greater operator acceptance. Raymond offers the iWarehouse® system, an enterprise fleet optimization solution for warehouse and distribution center managers to collect and analyze real-time lift truck data to maximize fleet productivity and reduce costs. High-performance, reliable, ergonomically designed Raymond lift trucks range from a full line of manual and electric pallet trucks and walkie stackers to counterbalanced trucks, Reach-Fork trucks, orderpickers and dual-purpose (pallet handling/case picking) Swing-Reach® trucks.
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Raymond and Reach-Fork® are a registered trademark of The Raymond Corporation.
About United Natural Foods
United Natural Foods, Inc. (http://www.unfi.com/) carries and distributes more than 60,000 products to more than 17,000 customer locations nationwide. The Company serves a wide variety of retail formats including conventional supermarket chains, natural product superstores, independent retail operators and the food service channel. United Natural Foods, Inc. was ranked by Forbes in 2005 as one of the "Best Managed Companies in America," ranked by Fortune in 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2010 as one of its "Most Admired Companies," winner of the Supermarket News 2008 Sustainability Excellence Award, and recognized by the Nutrition Business Journal for its 2009 Environment and Sustainability Award.
Plug Power Inc. Safe Harbor Statement
This communication contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. We believe that it is important to communicate our future expectations to our investors. However, there may be events in the future that we are not able to accurately predict or control and that may cause our actual results to differ materially from the expectations we describe in our forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding the risk that unit orders will not ship, be installed and/or convert to revenue, in whole or in part; the cost and timing of developing our products and our ability to raise the necessary capital to fund such development costs; we may be unable to achieve the forecasted gross margin on the sale of our products; our actual net cash used for operating expenses may exceed the projected net cash for operating expenses; the cost and availability of fuel and fueling infrastructures for our products; market acceptance of our GenDrive and GenSys systems; our ability to establish and maintain relationships with third parties with respect to product development, manufacturing, distribution and servicing and the supply of key product components; the cost and availability of components and parts for our products; our ability to develop commercially viable products; our ability to reduce product and manufacturing costs; our ability to successfully expand our product lines; our ability to improve system reliability for both GenDrive and GenSys; competitive factors, such as price competition and competition from other traditional and alternative energy companies; our ability to manufacture products on a large-scale commercial basis; our ability to protect our intellectual property; the cost of complying with current and future governmental regulations; the impact of deregulation and restructuring of the electric utility industry on demand for Plug Power's energy products; and other risks and uncertainties discussed under "Item IA-Risk Factors" in our annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2009, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") on March 16, 2010, and the reports we file from time to time with the SEC. We do not intend to and undertake no duty to update the information contained in this communication.