19 February 2003

                    Christian Salvesen PLC - Trading update                    

Christian Salvesen PLC ("Christian Salvesen" or the "Group"), the European
logistics company, provides the following update on trading since the Group's
interim results statement issued on 3 December 2002, and announces that it has
undertaken a review of certain aspects of the Group's activity.

Background

Over the past two years, Christian Salvesen has been operating in an
environment in which cost increases in certain important elements of its
business, most notably in the form of increased driver costs, higher insurance
premiums, and the costs associated with increased congestion, have proved
progressively difficult to recover from customers through price increases.
Whilst significant progress has been made in winning new business, in
increasing efficiencies and in lowering the Group's cost base, the benefits of
these actions have been insufficient to offset the inflationary effect of the
cost increases, the impact of which has been magnified by the difficult
prevailing economic conditions.

Despite these challenges, some 80% of the Group's business by turnover is
performing well and generating expected returns. However, the balance of the
Group's operations, specifically the German Industrial business and parts of
the UK Food and Consumer and UK Industrial businesses, are producing
disappointing results.

The impact on the Group's performance is such that the Board currently expects
profits for the year to 31 March 2003 to be approximately 20% below current
market expectations. The Group's preliminary results for the year will be
announced in June 2003.

Food and Consumer Division

In the Food and Consumer Division, the Continental European businesses - in
France, Benelux, Italy, Spain and Portugal - have performed marginally ahead of
expectations, and are demonstrating their continued resilience despite severe
pricing pressures.

It is in the UK food and consumer business, traditionally our strongest
business, where a shortfall has arisen. As previously stated, profits in the
second half were to be impacted by the start-up of the new cold store sites at
Bedworth and Easton. However, the start-up at Easton was delayed in the
important run-up to Christmas, leading to higher than anticipated levels of
disruption in both the warehousing and transport operations. In addition, and
despite the Group's strong market position, pricing pressures continue to
intensify, and since the Christmas period, volumes have softened with slower
than expected re-stocking taking place at certain sites. As a result of all
these factors, full-year profits from the UK food and consumer operations will
be markedly lower than anticipated.

Industrial Division

In the Industrial Division, the French and Iberian businesses have continued to
trade broadly in line with expectations. Darfeuille continues to contribute a
resilient performance in a softening market and our previously announced
restructuring programmes for Gerposa have progressed well, with the business
still on target to approach break-even by the year-end.

In Germany, we have continued to implement the previously announced
restructuring plans. However, due to the continued worsening of the economic
environment, the measures previously outlined are proving insufficient to turn
the performance around. The loss for the full year is now expected to be
similar to that for 2002.

In the UK, the lower manufacturing output and a more extended shutdown than
anticipated by many customers over the Christmas period have impacted the scale
of the upturn in the business's performance. As stated in December, the
expectation of an improved second half was dependent on our seeing the benefits
of the 5-point action plan to improve the profitability of this business.
However, the continuing industrial climate is hampering management's ability to
achieve all aspects of this plan and to extract the anticipated benefits in
full. Therefore, whilst the business has performed slightly better in the
second half, the generation of acceptable returns will not be achieved without
an acceleration and intensification of the previously outlined action plans.

Business Review

In light of the challenging market conditions, the Board has rapidly undertaken
a business review across the Group's underperforming operations.

This process has involved a fundamental review of the overall operational and
management structure of the UK businesses to optimise the focus of the
transport, warehousing, and support services operations. The objective is to
integrate the UK Food and Consumer and UK Industrial businesses into a single
functional structure and, to facilitate this, we will recruit externally a
senior executive to take responsibility for the Group's UK operations.

In the UK businesses, we are implementing an accelerated programme of exiting
from insufficiently profitable business, coupled with significant cost
reduction initiatives. We are also conducting a full review of the strategic
options available to the Group in the German industrial market.

Dividend

In January 2003 the Group paid an unchanged interim dividend of 2.65 pence per
share. At the present time, the Board intends to recommend the payment of a
final dividend, although this is unlikely to be at the level of the previous
year.

Edward Roderick, Chief Executive of Christian Salvesen plc, said:

"The continued underperformance in certain key business areas is disappointing
in the extreme, and is something that we are in the process of rectifying
through immediate and decisive action.

"Our reputation for operational effectiveness amongst our customer base remains
undiminished. With the exception of our Industrial business in Germany, our
continental European businesses are showing resilience and are performing
broadly as expected.

"However, the German operations and parts of our UK business need more radical
action than has been taken to date if we are to generate the returns that our
shareholders expect. We are addressing this vigorously."

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Enquiries:-

Christian Salvesen PLC                                   01604 662600      
Edward Roderick, Chief Executive                                           
Peter Aspden, Finance Director                                             
                                                                           
Hogarth Partnership Limited                              020 7357 9477     
John Olsen                                                                 
Rachel Hirst                                                               



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