Mekonomen's marine venture accelerates with the Mekonomen Sailing Team

Mekonomen's marine venture accelerates with the Mekonomen Sailing Team

“Formed in cooperation with Björn Hansen and Sweden's highest ranking
match racing team.”

Mekonomen will now launch its marine venture aimed at becoming equally
successful at BoatLife as with CarLife. As part of the effort, the
Mekonomen Sailing Team has now been launched; cooperation with skipper
Björn Hansen and Sweden's highest ranking match racing team, the Hansen
Sailing Team. The marine effort has already commenced and Mekonomen has
a carefully selected range in more than 80 stores in Sweden. Mekonomen's
marine range comprises more than 50,000 spare parts and accessories for
various types of boats.

As part of the objective to become market leader in the marine
aftermarket, Mekonomen has decided to cooperate with the Hansen Sailing
Team. The cooperation pertains to developing Mekonomen's marine business
jointly with one of Sweden's most experienced sailing teams and to make
BoatLife easier for all boat owners in Sweden. Mekonomen will be the
principal partner to Björn Hansen, while Björn and his team will be
active in the development and creation of Mekonomen's marine range and
communication.

“The cooperation with Björn and his team feels like a perfect match.
They have extensive experience and credibility in the marine world. This
cooperation is an exciting mix of communication, with exposure and
advertising, as well as a highly valuable exchange of knowledge and
expertise, with Björn and his team working closely with us at Mekonomen.
We hope that the joint venture will be a bridge builder internally and
with our customers,” says Staffan Lindewald, Business Area Manager for
Mekonomen Fleet and Mekonomen's marine venture.

“By cooperating with Mekonomen, we will create the prerequisites for
taking our sailing to the next level. As with Mekonomen, we aim to
become the leader in two years. For us, this means that we will be
aiming for one of the top five positions in the World Championship in
2011, to then win the gold medal for the 2012 season,” says the team's
skipper, Björn Hansen.

For more information:

Håkan Lundstedt, President and CEO of Mekonomen AB, Tel: +46 8 464 00 00

Staffan Lindewald, Head of Fleet/Marine Mekonomen AB, Tel: +46 8 464 00
00

 
About Hansen Sailing Team:

Hansen Sailing Team is Scandinavia's highest ranking match racing team
and currently ranked six in the world. In the past ten years, the team
has been ranked in the top ten. Match racing is an intense and
action-packed form of sailing that occurs close to shore. It is easy to
understand that first across the finishing line wins. Sweden's most
popular match racing competition is called Stena Match Cup Sweden and
takes place in Marstrand in early July. The competition is one of nine
World Championship events.

Mekonomen makes CarLife easier through a wide and easily accessible
range of inexpensive and innovative solutions and products for consumers
and companies. We are leading spare-parts chain in the Nordic region,
with proprietary wholesale operations, more than 300 stores and more
than 1,500 workshops, operating under the Mekonomen brands.