TAKKT subsidiary C&H launches business activities in Mexico

Expansion of mail order business south of the US border

The Stuttgart-based TAKKT AG, the leading business-to-business mail order house for office, business and warehousing equipment in Europe and North America, is expanding powerfully on the American continent. The expansion plans announced at the Annual Meeting of Shareholders are now being implemented by the US subsidiary C&H Distributors. From now on, it will be targeting the Mexican market with a special catalogue. During the initial phase, sales and marketing activities will be geared to US companies with manufacturing facilities "south of the border".

Georg Gayer, chairman of the management board of TAKKT AG, is confident that the expansion policy will be successful: "Entering the Mexican market is our first step towards extending our business operations south of the US border. Mexico, together with the US and Canada, is a party to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and serves as a bridgehead to Central and South America. In spite of Mexico's membership of NAFTA, however, there are still various obstacles to free trade in that country, including strict customs and import restrictions. From our business activities with Eastern Europe we have considerable experience with the successful removal of trading barriers. We are therefore ideally equipped for this new venture." All business operations in Mexico will initially be managed from C&H headquarters in Milwaukee. At present the product range mainly consists of items which C&H already markets in the US and Canada. At the same time, plans have been made to include Mexican products in the range and also to target Mexican companies.

Business activities in Mexico are permanently integrated into the US logistics network of TAKKT subsidiary K + K America. Here, too, customers benefit from the centralised services, such as purchasing, sales promotion, and the continual interchange of information within the TAKKT Group. TAKKT's finance director Dr. Felix A. Zimmermann is convinced that the Mexico project will be an unqualified success: "The key to our successful strategy of growth and expansion is our 'multipliable' systems business, which can be applied to new products, new market segments or - as in the case of Mexico - new regions."

K + K America, with subsidiaries C&H Distributors, Avenue Industrial Supply and Conney Safety Products, is the leading business-to-business mail order retailer in North America. Its range comprises more than 45,000 products in the fields of transportation, warehousing, operation, office equipment, security and packaging. Sales in 1999 amounted to Euro 228 million (US$ 243 million). Expanding at a rate of 23.6 percent, K + K America recorded the highest sales increase of all TAKKT subsidiaries during the first quarter of 2000.

Stuttgart, July 7, 2000.

Contacts:

Georg Gayer
Tel. +49 (0) 711.50 01- 239

Dr. Felix A. Zimmermann
Tel. +49 (0) 711.50 01- 861