Chairman's Statement

Macfarlane Group PLC
18 December 2000


                             Macfarlane Group PLC

                             Chairman's Statement


At the Extraordinary General Meeting of Macfarlane Group held at 3.00 pm today
to approve the acquisition of British Polythene Industries plc, John Ward
(Chairman of Macfarlane Group) made the following statement:

'Firstly I must thank all Macfarlane Group shareholders for the significant
support that we, as a Board, have received during the course of our offer. We
have always advised our shareholders that we would not overpay and therefore
would not consider raising our offer beyond 310p. Whilst we were disappointed
not to receive sufficient support at this level in our attempt to buy British
Polythene Industries plc, we are grateful to those 35% of BPI shareholders who
did support us by either accepting our offer or selling us shares.

As the largest shareholder in BPI, our interest is now aligned with the
interests of all the other BPI shareholders and we look to the Board of
British Polythene Industries plc to demonstrate that they will deliver value
to all their shareholders. We shall deal with our shareholding in British
Polythene Industries plc in a manner, which will be to the optimum benefit of
our shareholders in Macfarlane Group PLC.

Your board's objective is to meet performance targets and in spite of the
competitive trading conditions in the year to date I am pleased that we can
again confirm, with confidence, that we have not altered our expectations from
normal trading for the year 2000.

Our estimate is that the professional fees and costs of the bid for British
Polythene Industries plc will not exceed £2 million.

Your Board is always mindful of the need to take tough decisions to deliver
meaningful improvements in earnings enhancement and shareholder value. As we
have always said your Board is committed and remains committed to delivering
value to Macfarlane Group PLC shareholders.'