LEX Vehicle Leasing has taken a lucrative piece of business from Dial Contracts after the Barclays subsidiary announced it had clinched a major pan-European deal. Lex this week announced a new solus deal to supply cars to pharmaceuticals giant AAH less than a year after Dial claimed it had signed a pan-European dual supply contract with AAH's parent company Haniel.

Dial said it had secured the 5,500-vehicle business through its strategic European alliance, auto-Leasing Europa, earlier this year. But an AAH spokeswoman confirmed that Lex was sole supplier of cars in the UK and the company had 'nothing to do with Dial'. Dial subsequently claimed: 'The situation is that Dial does have a dual supply agreement with AAH in the UK under the Haniel agreement. But AAH has chosen to continue using Lex, with whom they already had a relationship.'

Lex insists the two-year contract is new business won on a solus basis however. A spokesman said it had picked up the business after its German partner LHS won a supply contract in Germany and recommended Lex to senior Haniel management in line with Lex's membership of the Frontier Lease pan-European alliance.