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December 20, 2005 - Scala Nordic AS Announces 3-Year Exclusive Agreement with NorgesGruppen
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Oslo, Norway -- December 20, 2005 Scala Nordic AS announces signing a 3-year exclusive agreement with NorgesGruppen for delivery of the Scala InfoChannel digital signage software platform to the NorgesGruppen group in Norway.
NorgesGruppen is Norway's largest trading enterprise. Its core business is grocery retailing and wholesaling. Through its chains, the group holds 34.8% of the Norwegian grocery market. The agreement is estimated to have a potential value of NOK 12 mill. (USD 1.75 mill.) over three years.
NorgesGruppen will rollout its first in-store digital signage network in its MIX chain. MIX contains 950 stores/kiosks with 100 of the MIX stores implementing two Digital Signage channels per store and the remainder implementing one channel. Due to the unique dynamic, real-time, rendering at "the point of playback" of Scala's InfoChannel platform the content displayed at each store can be dynamically tailored to the local requirements of each store. It is anticipated that over the period of the agreement NorgesGruppen will deploy Scala's digital signage solution in over 2000 locations.
The goal of the network is to improve the communication between the store and its customers by combining brand advertising with in-store customer information to enhance the customer shopping experience.
In addition, to ensure a focused message is delivered to its local customers each store will create and manage some local content over its in-store infrastructure, by exploiting the dynamic control over playback of content at each location, a key feature offered by the Scala InfoChannel software platform. Much of this can be automated by integrating the Scala platform with existing databases and/or local POS systems.
"For Scala Nordic this agreement confirms our leadership position in the Nordic marketplace", says Truls Baklid, VP Scala Nordic. "As a supplier Scala is excited to work with such a major retailer in Nordic."
"This agreement with NorgesGruppen further strengthens Scala's leadership position as an enterprise platform in the global digital signage marketplace", says Gerard Bucas, President and CEO of Scala, Inc. "We look forward to partnering with NorgesGruppen throughout its implementation process".
About Scala, Inc.
Scala, Inc. (www.scala.com) pioneered the industry of digital signage in 1987, and is today headquartered near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with operations in California, the UK, Norway, The Netherlands, China and Japan. As flat panel and networking technologies catch up with Scala's vision, Scala finds itself with more than a 15-year head start, helping it to win some of the largest digital signage engagements and most respectable partners in the industry. Companies that are implementing their digital signage equipment on the Scala InfoChannel 3 platform include Tesco, Best Buy, T-Mobile, ShopRite, Virgin MegaStore, Bloomberg, Kiwi, Azizia-Panda Supermarket, McKee Foods, Burger King, Muvico, Warner Brothers Movie World, RaboBank, Nedbank, Santiago Airport, Dubai Airport, Woolworths, etc. A network of over 250 Value Added Resellers across the globe offer Scala InfoChannel solutions, and constitute our sales and support force that extends to every continent but Antarctica.
About NorgesGruppen
NorgesGruppen is Norway's largest trading enterprise. Its core business is grocery retailing and wholesaling. Through its chains, the group holds 34.8% of the Norwegian grocery market.
Founded in December 1994, NorgesGruppen was created as a cooperative organization for a number of individual players in grocery retailing and wholesaling. The goal was to strengthen existing collaboration between these participants. Another important goal was to create a common front for positioning in a market affected by a steady trend towards fewer and larger players, with growing integration between wholesaling and retailing. Since its creation, the collaboration has developed positively. Customers, wholesalers, dealers and shareholders have all reaped financial benefits, and good long-term relations have been built up.
The group had a turnover of NOK 28.1 billion in 2004, with an operating profit of NOK 669 million (USD 4.1B). A total of 1838 grocery stores and 875 kiosks are affiliated to NorgesGruppen, with more than 25,000 employees.
