Delticom Plans Sales Network Expansion

HANNOVER, Germany, December 3 -- Delticom AG, market leader in the European online tyre retail segment, is planning an expansion of its European sales platform. The company currently operates 31 online stores in 18 countries.

It all began back in 2000 with Delticom's first retail outlet, www.reifendirekt.de. A wholesale venue, www.autoreifenonline.de, was added shortly thereafter and platforms in Austria, Switzerland the UK and other European markets soon followed. "We will soon have the entire European market covered, which shows that our business model has been extremely successful," notes Delticom chief operating officer Andreas Prüfer. "Our extensive product line consisting of 70 tyre brands and 15,000 tyre models has gone over extremely well throughout Europe and beyond," comments Rainer Binder, Delticom chief executive officer.

In addition to tyres and complete wheels, some outlets also carry motorbike tyres and spare auto parts (the latter in Germany only at www.autoteilemeile.de). Delticom has successfully instituted a standardised and extremely simple ordering process in all markets. The customer finds the tyre they want online, selects one of numerous payment options, and enters the desired delivery address. If the customer does not know where to have the tyre mounted, they can search the Delticom site for the nearest Delticom tyre mounting venue, of which there are currently 4,500 across Europe. Service stations and tyre mounting stores can register free of charge at www.mytyres.co.uk and have the name of their establishment added to the list of Delitcom facilities.

The company recently purchased the consumer tyre test report website www.reifentest.de. In addition, Delticom will soon be opening a facility in Portugal, www.pneucity.com and their French motorbike tyre outlet www.pneus-moto.fr. went into operation this past October. Delticom provides Swedish motorists with complete winter wheels via www.dackonline.se, services Swedish bikers via www.mcdackonline.com and has acquired the Swedish URL's dack.se and däck.se. In Greece, customers are excited about the extensive range of tyres available at Delticom's newly launched facility, www.elasitca-online.gr.

Delticom turnover was 51 million euros for the first three quarters of 2004, a 54% increase over the same period last year.