NAPA to Upgrade to Stibo Catalog STEP v.4.6

ATLANTA--Sept. 7, 2004--Long-time Stibo Catalog customer and the largest member of the Genuine Parts Company, National Automotive Parts Association (NAPA) will upgrade to STEP Enterprise v4.6 at its corporate headquarters in Atlanta, GA.

NAPA uses STEP to manage more than 300,000 products and application records with associated images and other digital assets to streamline the information supply chain of product information from suppliers to the highly acclaimed web store (www.NapaOnline.com). This is in addition to in-store systems throughout its 6,000-plus NAPA Auto Parts stores in the US, more than 500 outlets in Canada and Mexico, and many thousands of Dealer Garage customers throughout North America.

NAPA has been a Stibo Catalog customer since 1999, when it chose STEP 4 to manage product marketing content in a central data repository to improve the distribution of new product marketing content to in-store systems and the corporate website. NAPA relied on the STEP 4 release 4.4 for five years before deciding to upgrade to the latest version of Stibo Catalog's STEP system to take advantage of several new features.

The complexity of gathering information from thousands of product suppliers demands a sophisticated workflow to ensure that suppliers' products are managed properly and that NAPA stores receive accurate product information.

Not only has STEP's user interface changed since 1999 but Stibo Catalog's re-design allows NAPA to write custom user interfaces taking advantage of STEP's API and added workflow capability. With the move to STEP v4.6 NAPA will also benefit from newly available technology including image and document management, the state-of-the-art enterprise transformation and load (ETL) tool for collecting and cleansing supplier data, STEP Import Manager, as well as STEP e-Publisher which will allow product managers to incrementally update product content for the web, reducing the time it takes to synchronize web content with the STEP database.

"The STEP system is the most robust tool available for managing our complex content requirements," said Ken Ingram, Director Catalog and Profile Pricing Services for Genuine Parts Co. "We have been very pleased with the performance and reliability of the existing product as well as the tremendous support of the Stibo staff. Deciding to upgrade to the new release, with its innovative additions to facilitate and speed up our data handling, was a natural."

"I am pleased that NAPA has chosen to upgrade to STEP v4.6 to manage its complex product information and application-specific data and gain the benefits from a number of new STEP components," said Andreas Lorenzen, President Stibo Catalog North America. "It says a lot about the relationship that we build with each of our customers, when a customer of the size and significance of Genuine Parts continues to invest in our technology and Stibo Catalog as a company."

ABOUT STEP

Stibo Catalog STEP Solution is comprised of two core components: STEP Product Information Manager, workflow automation, digital asset management and product information management software with the capability to capture, manage, and distribute product information and product related assets; and STEP Publication Manager, a powerful publishing engine that allows product information to be grouped into meaningful combinations for advertising and other purposes, and then styled and formatted to facilitate the publishing of content to print, web and CD-ROM from a single source.

ABOUT STIBO CATALOG

Stibo Catalog is a clear industry leader in the global market for Multi-Channel Product Information Management and Publishing having originated many of the business processes and principles which have emerged as industry standards and has achieved Dun and Bradstreet AAA rating for financial stability. Stibo Catalog has existed as an independent business since 1976, with a total of over 170 employees in the UK, USA, Germany, Denmark and Singapore. It is part of a modern foundation (Stibo A/S) with its origins in book publishing dating back to 1794. Other members of Stibo A/S include CCI Europe, the world's leading supplier of system solutions for newspapers and magazines as well as Stibo Graphic, one of Europe's largest printing installations. Stibo Catalog's customers include RS Components, Premier Farnell, Siemens, VRG, Millipore, MSC Industrial Supply Company, Newport, Kellogg Marine, ELFA and many others.

ABOUT GENUINE PARTS COMPANY

Genuine Parts Company is a distributor of automotive replacement parts in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The Company also distributes industrial replacement parts in the U.S. and Canada through its Motion Industries subsidiary. S. P. Richards Company, the Office Products Group, distributes product nationwide in the U.S. and in Canada. The Electrical/Electronic Group, EIS, Inc., distributes electrical and electronic components throughout the U.S. and Mexico. Genuine Parts Company had 2003 revenues of $8.4 billion.