His Excellency François Delattre

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.--Saft, the world's leading designer and manufacturer of advanced technology batteries for industry, is pleased to welcome His Excellency François Delattre, Ambassador of France to the United States on a visit to its Jacksonville Florida facility. The ambassador is visiting innovative French-based companies in the state.

The ambassador met senior officials from the company and toured the plant with the Consul General Gael de Maisonneuve and honorary Consul François Kloc.

This high-volume, state-of-the-art production facility opened in September 2011 is dedicated to building advanced lithium-ion cells and batteries for energy storage for renewable energy, smart grid support, broadband back-up power, transportation and defense.

Saft's 15th facility worldwide is also a unique example of technical innovation, including the production of 1 MW of solar power from the largest rooftop photovoltaic system in Florida and fully-automated, totally flexible production lines capable of building multi new-generation Li-ion technologies.

With an annual sales capacity of $300M, Saft Jacksonville is meeting growing demand for high performance, competitive energy storage solutions and will play an important part in the development of the new-energy economy, in the United States and worldwide.

Franck Cecchi, director of Saft's worldwide Li-ion operations declared, "It is a great pleasure to host the Ambassador and show him what Saft is achieving here in Jacksonville. Our facility is building the high technology batteries here in the United States to support the energy storage markets of the future."

About Saft

Saft (Euronext: Saft) is a world leader in the design and manufacture of advanced technology batteries for industry. The Group is the world's leading manufacturer of nickel batteries and primary lithium batteries for the industrial infrastructure and processes, transportation, civil and military electronics markets. Saft is the world leader in space and defence batteries with its Li-ion technologies which are also being deployed in the energy storage, transportation and telecommunication markets. Saft's 4,000 employees present in 18 countries, its 15 manufacturing sites and extensive sales network all contribute to accelerating the Group's growth for the future.

For more information, visit Saft at www.saftbatteries.com