Allete   Allete
SEARCH  
 
Investors
       Governance
Allete Stock
 
 
The ALLETE Investor
      June 1, 2003

ALLETE DirectorsShareholders gather for ALLETE Annual Meeting

ALLETE shareholders gathered at their annual meeting in Duluth, Minn. May 13 to elect ten directors, reserve additional shares for the employee stock purchase plan, ratify the appointment of auditors and hear CEO Dave Gartzke outline corporate strategy for the future.

Gartzke outlined how the company had worked to create value at ALLETE by exiting non-strategic businesses, adding merchant power generation and pursuing opportunities in automotive services. He said 2003 expectations were for stable earnings in energy services and 15 percent growth at automotive services.

Creating value at ALLETE
Gartzke also outlined for shareholders some of the considerations that must be studied before making a decision on whether to separate the businesses or keep them together under the current corporate structure. Whether separated or not, he said, energy and automotive services are well positioned, with solid earnings and cash generation.

Newly elected to ALLETE’s board was Thomas L. Cunningham, 57, of St. Augustine, Fla. Cunningham retired in 2002 as director of remarketing strategy for Ford Motor Company. At Ford, he was responsible for the total design and implementation of Ford's wholesale used vehicle sales strategy in the United States.

Changes in the board
Cunningham’s election follows the 2002 ALLETE board election of Wynn V. Bussmann, another automotive industry expert who is Senior Vice President of Global Forecasting for J.D. Power and Associates. Two other directors retired from the ALLETE board since the 2002 annual meeting: Glenda Hood and Kathleen Brekken.

About 1,500 shareholders attended the meeting, held at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center. A traditional lunch, music and dancing followed the business meeting.
Dear Shareholder

Your connection to Shareholder Services

Shareholders of ALLETE can obtain quarterly data online (www.allete.com) as soon as they are made public, or they can listen to quarterly conference calls (by telephone or during a live webcast) with securities analysts every three months. Just click on the “Investors” link on the corporate home page.

ALLETE also offers its shareholders the opportunity to be placed on a financial mailing list so they can receive by mail quarterly results directly after they are made public.
For more information on how to access the latest information about ALLETE, see our Investors pages at www.allete.com or call 800-535-3056. Our shareholder services staff, pictured here, is happy to assist investors with any questions they might have about owning shares in ALLETE.
 

Gerald Hadland Kathy Douglas Stephanie May Nancy Amato Laurel Udenberg
Gerald
Hadland
Kathy
Douglas
Stephanie
May
Nancy
Amato
Laurel
Udenberg

We have reconfigured our traditional quarterly report to shareholders and renamed it The ALLETE Investor. I hope you enjoy the new focus on business operations and useful information for investors in our unique company.

We changed the name and format to improve timeliness while maintaining efficient delivery. Financial results have previously been a feature of our quarterly reports, but mailing dates coinciding with your statements and dividend checks lagged the release of financial information by about six weeks.

Technology has brought many new ways for you to receive timely financial data about ALLETE, including on our web site www.allete.com. You’ll find other ways to stay in touch with your corporation elsewhere in this newsletter.
I hope you enjoy the new ALLETE Investor.

Sincerely,

David G. Gartzke
CEO
ENERGY Services

New Automatic MeterNew automatic electric meters improve service
and billing accuracy

Bills are more accurate, service is improved and Minnesota Power’s electric distribution system is much more efficient thanks to a new automatic meter reading system now being installed across the MP service territory.

When the project is completed in mid-2004, about 75,000 residential and commercial electric meters will be linked to MP service and billing offices and will no longer require a human to “read” them. The meters are being replaced or retrofitted so that they can automatically transmit data to Minnesota Power.

Two million Turtles
Hunt Technologies, Inc. of Pequot Lakes, MN has developed and sold more than 2 million of its Turtle transmitters, which send data from the meters using the very low frequency spectrum of existing electric distribution lines.
At select substations throughout the MP service territory, receivers are installed where the signals come in from individual residences. Then, information from the meters is transmitted to MP’s Herbert Service Center.

“In addition to the value associated with automatic meter reading, data is available for verifying outage restoration, validating system planning efforts, analyzing system reliability and helping customers with questions about energy use,” said Pat Mullen, MP’s vice president of distribution operations and customer service.

Answers to billing questions
Customers will see more accurate information on their monthly bills. And because data from individual meters will be available to MP’s customer service representatives, questions about energy usage can be handled more efficiently and directly.

The Turtle system gets its name from the time it takes – 27 hours – to get a meter reading.
“It’s slow to get the information, but it’s continuously sending the signal,” said Kurt Brooks of Minnesota Power, the project’s manager. “Along with the meter readings, it gives us a ‘blink count,’ of momentary outages.” This information can be used to isolate and pinpoint problem areas.

More accurate readings
Many of MP’s 133,000 residential customers live in rural areas and have been taking their own meter readings. In other locations, MP employees have traditionally gone house-to-house reading meters. Installation of the Turtle system, now about 40 percent complete, has already improved billing accuracy.

In total, about 15,000 new meters will be installed and another 60,000 will be calibrated and retrofitted with a circuit board that counts the revolutions of the horizontal wheel inside the meter.
When the project is complete, every area in the MP service territory except for the urban areas of Duluth and Cloquet will be equipped with the automatic meters.

Customers are notified by mail prior to the work being done. Contractors and MP employees have been switching over to the new system at the rate of 50 to 250 electric meters per day.

AUTOMOTIVE Services

ADESA Long IslandAuctions in Atlanta, Long Island gear up

Excitement is building over major new ADESA wholesale auctions now under construction in two of the nation’s hottest vehicle markets – Long Island, N.Y. and Atlanta Ga.
Construction is nearly finished at the new ADESA facility in Yaphank, NY, soon to begin business as the only wholesale dealer-licensed vehicle auction on Long Island, N.Y.
The new six-lane ADESA Long Island is only an hour’s drive from New York City’s LaGuardia Airport.



"Licensed vehicle dealers in the state of New York told us they wanted to experience ADESA on the Island," said Jim Hallett, president and CEO of ADESA Corp. "We listened, and we're excited to unveil the latest facility in our ongoing strategy to develop 'greenfield' operations and improved facilities."

A commitment from Ford
A commitment from Ford Motor Credit to hold two factory sales a month was a prime motivator in the decision to build the new auction, Hallett said.

ADESA Long Island will feature a spacious administrative complex, sale parking for more than 1,800 consigned units and a loading area big enough to receive hundreds of vehicles at a time.
“The biggest selling point is that we’re the only game in town,” said Todd Darr, general manager of ADESA Long Island. “We’re looking at roughly 1,500 (used vehicle) dealers in New York City’s five boroughs and the two nearest counties on Long Island.” The auction is expected to open in early June.

A bigger, closer ADESA Atlanta
Meanwhile, in Fairburn, Ga., construction continues at the innovative new ADESA Atlanta, scheduled for completion in September. The new facility will have four times the space, more auction lanes and a location 11 miles closer to the Hartsfield International Airport than the current ADESA Atlanta auction in Newnan, Ga.

“We’re bursting at the seams at our present location,” said ADESA Atlanta General Manager David Rush. “It’s going to allow us to better serve our customers.” Rush said ADESA Atlanta regularly serves dealers from 15 to 17 states.

Eight auction lanes, a seven-lane detail shop and a technology center are among the features at the new ADESA Atlanta. Its state-of-the-art paint shop will use an environmentally friendly water-borne painting system Rush said is the first of its kind in the used vehicle auction industry. “It’s a part of ADESA’s commitment to the environment. We’re on the new wave of what’s going to happen,” Rush said.

top