SATO strengthens label, printer & hand labeller production in Europe
and ASEAN

SINGAPORE – July 5, 2004 – SATO International Pte. Ltd. (SI), a holding company for SATO Corporation’s overseas sales offices, today announced its plans to expand its Labels and Seals, Printer and Hand Labellers production business.
In addition to manufacturing barcode printers, SATO also designs and supplies labels, seals and tickets from its label production factories. Part of SATO’s expansion plans for 2004 include establishing a new printing factory in East Europe and ASEAN, and upgrading the printing equipments in its Thailand factory. SATO also has printing factories in Singapore, UK and USA.

“SATO has identified consumables production as the key to further propel its overseas sales where demand for such consumables production has been increasing. Thus, we are going to establish a new factory in East Europe (Poland) and ASEAN (Malaysia) where the market has shown potential growth,” commented Mr. T. Waki, Managing Director, SATO International.

“The new factories in Wroclaw (Poland) and Kuala-Lumpur (Malaysia) will begin their production runs from this October and December respectively. And, to meet the growing demand for barcode printers and hand labellers, SATO also has plans for a second overseas plant in Hanoi (Vietnam) to be built in 2005,” added Mr. Waki.

Being The Expert of the Experts in “Data Capture System (DCS) & Labelling Worldwide”, consumables and supplies play an important part in SATO’s business module. SATO also has numerous label design accolades to its name, with the most recent being the Supreme Award which was awarded at the 15th World Label Contest held in Brussels, Belgium in September 2003.

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About SATO International (SI)

SATO International (SI), the global sales headquarters of SATO Corporation, is a world leader of automatic identification products including barcode printers. SI was incorporated in 2001 to oversee and support sales, marketing and customer service activities at all group member companies. As part of its expansion plans, SI is rapidly strengthening its own team, as well as that of its overseas, group member companies. Also, SI will initiate new product launches, in addition to identifying and securing new strategic partnerships to expand its comprehensive AIDC business outside of Japan. SI is the driving force behind SATO Corporation’s global branding strategy and expansion into new markets and territories. More details at www.satoworldwide.com