Greece, July 14, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) --
VIRGIN ware OPENS TWO NEW STORES IN THE UK
Hatzioannou, the leading European group in the second skin manufacturing and value for money retailing, announced that its 100% UK subsidiary Virgin ware opened two new stores in the UK. One store was in Coventry on July 2, 2004 and another one in Leamington on July 10, 2004.
Virgin ware now operates in total 17 stores in England. (Please see table)
OPENING DATE STORES-LOCATION JULY 2002 FOUBERTS-LONDON APRIL 2003 READING AUGUST 2003 BULL RING-BIRMINGHAM AUGUST 2003 FIGLEAVES (Online Store) SEPTEMBER 2003 TRAFFORD-MANCHESTER OCTOBER 2003 BRAINTREE-ESSEX (Stock House) NOVEMBER 2003 CHESTER DECEMBER 2003 PETERBOROUGH DECEMBER 2003 HATFIELD (Stock House) DECEMBER 2003 CRAWLEY JANUARY 2004 YORK FEBRUARY 2004 BROMLEY MARCH 2004 GUILDFORD MARCH 2004 CROYDON MAY 2004 HORSHAM JUNE 2004 COVENTRY JULY 2004 LEAMINGTON
The rights to the Virgin brand were bought in 2000 by Unique Commerce Ltd, which is a 100% owned subsidiary based in Manchester, UK. Unique Commerce owns the rights for commercial exploitation of the Virgin trademark globally and in perpetuity for products of inwear (men's, ladies, children's, underwear, swimwear, nightwear, hosiery and socks). We are initially focussing exclusively on female underwear.
Virgin ware currently operates 17 own stores in the UK, with a further 7 under negotiation. The rollout programme is for 25-30 stores in the UK by the end of 2004.
Virgin ware is consolidated to the group for the first time in 2004.
SPRIDER
The fire in one of the Sprider's warehouses on June 24, has not created any major operational and logistics problem.
The destroyed items were fully insured and inventory, especially for fall, is pilling up since the company's sourcing moved speed fully and effectively.
Moreover, the supply of merchandise items to all Sprider stores is continuous and it will not affect sales and other financial targets by the company.
New headquarters and warehouses
In order to optimize synergies among subsidiaries the group (Hatzioannou Holdings, Vertical and Sprider) recently moved to new headquarters and warehouse.
The new offices are located at:
Hatzioannou Holdings - Vertical - Sprider 1 Sirou Street (OSAM) Anthousa, Attica 153 49 Greece
Tel.: ++ 30 210 6609800 Fax: ++ 30 210 6609860
Hatzioannou shares are listed on the Athens Stock Exchange (Reuters: HADr.AT), (Bloomberg: HATZK GA) and also traded on the Deutsche Borse.
This information is also available on Hatzioannou's website at www.hatzi.gr
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