STOCKHOLM, Sweden, May 18, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- Doro UK and Doro AB (publ) of Sweden, have signed a licensing agreement with East Central of the U.K., for the Audioline and Atlantel brand for the U.K market. The agreement means that East Central will have the exclusive rights to sell products under the Audioline brand and also Atlantel in the U.K.
The licence agreement means that East Central will take over all sales of Audioline products from 1 June 2004. The company also has the right to use the Audioline brand on products that they will outsource. In the agreement Doro can also supply various services for quality and product sourcing. In addition Doro UK will deliver helpline services for customers.
Second biggest telephone market in Europe Doro UK is a subsidiary of Doro AB, a Swedish public company and one of the leaders of fixed line telephony in Europe. East Central is a rapidly expanding distributor in the telecom and home electronics sector in the UK. The UK telephone market is Europe's second largest in value.
"Doro UK has made significant progress over the last half year and we have started business with many former customers. We are happy to work with East Central in this new creative way. The deal will have a positive effect on our figures from Q3," said Tim Mabley MD of Doro UK.
"East Central is satisfied to conclude this deal with Doro. We have high ambitions for the UK market and we can now add Audioline and Atlantel to our good range of brands," said Rob Kay MD of East Central.
"We have decided the make the Doro brand much more well-known in the important UK market according to our new growth strategy. For that reason we have signed this deal with East Central. On other markets we will keep Audioline as a tactical brand," said Rune Torbjornsen CEO of Doro.
"We can now focus even more on the Doro brand. Our new strategy is based on five distinctive customer segments: X-cite, X-pressive, X-cellent, X- tra and X-ecutive. We are now looking into widening the product portfolio," he concluded.
More information and next report
More information about Doro is available at: www.doro.com and the next report will come 12 August.
For further information, please contact: Doro AB, Sweden: CEO, Rune Torbjornsen +46 46 280 50 61 or Deputy CEO, Ingvar Karlsson +46 46 280 50 62
Doro UK:
MD Tim Mabley +44 1527 58 38 07
East Central UK: MD Rob Kay +44 1277 23 78 80
About Doro and East Central Doro
Doro designs, develops and sells communication products for the home and workplace. Besides private users and companies plus walkie-talkies, Doro also provides accessories such as headsets, answering machines and caller identity products. Experience and quality, focusing on user- friendliness and design have added to Doro's success on the European fixed line telephone markets. Doro also supplies broadband solutions and IP telephony through its subsidiary UpGrade Communication. In 2003 the Doro Group had sales of SEK 648 million and reported a profit of SEK 28 million. The Group's head office is in Lund, Sweden. Doro has subsidiaries in seven European countries and Australia. Doro's shares are quoted on Stockholmsborsen's O list. Read more about Doro at www.doro.com.
East Central
East Central is a privately owned UK company. The company distribute various telecom and consumer-electronic products from wellknown brands as Doro, HP, IBM, Apple, BT ,etc. The company had a net sales GBP 99 million (SEK 1350 millions) and a profit of GBP 2,5 million (SEK 34 millions).
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