SATO Corporation - A New Dimension in Europe

Ratingen, Germany-September 3, 2002. SATO Corporation has today announced a restructuring of its European operations to support its corporate goal of aggressive growth over the next 5 years.

Recently appointed Managing Director of SATO Europe, Mr Andrew G Britts, says "Like all companies SATO Corporation is continually looking at its activities to ensure it remains in a competitive position. Our objectives are to further increase the support for our Business Partners and to pro-actively grow our business in the diverse market places in Europe and the Middle East. This will be achieved by continuing to develop new products and by exploiting new opportunities and technologies, and developing solutions for vertical markets."

Over the past months, the SATO Corporation has been analysing the changing face of the European market place. Whilst the European marketing and distribution strategy has been successful in the past, it has been decided to substantially reorganise European activities.

A new company has been established in Brussels as the European Sales, Marketing and Technical Headquarters for the activities of SATO in European continent. Working with a team of qualified professionals with diverse expertise and knowledge, Mr Britts is responsible for driving the sales and marketing strategy in Europe into a new dimension for SATO.

Following along from the recent formation of SATO Poland to support activities in Central and Eastern Europe another national subsidiary, SATO Germany, has been established in Bad Homburg close to Frankfurt and is headed up by Mr Morihito Suzuki. Mr Suzuki states that the goals of the new German national subsidiary are to build on the existing sales through the established network of SATO Business Partners and to move forward with speed to open up new market areas for SATO and its Business Partners.

"The goals of the new German national subsidiary are to build on the existing sales through the established network of SATO Business Partners and to move forward with speed to open up new market areas for SATO and its Business Partners,” says Mr. Suzuki.

Andrew Britts also stated that SATO is centralising its distribution for Europe and the Middle East, who will handle all the product distribution from its hub in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

"This exact sentiment is shared by SATO Corporation", says Mr. Waki, Executive Director, SATO Corporation, and Managing Director, Barcode SATO International Pte Ltd.

"We see great potential in these markets and we are certain that this is a strategic move for SATO Europe. Over these past few months, there have been many positive changes and this is a further step towards our global expansion plan," added Mr. Waki.

This expansion plan is headed by Barcode SATO International (BSI), a holding company in Singapore, which was established for the purpose of providing support spanning from Operations to Customer Service to Sales to its subsidiaries.

For more information, please contact Alicia Tan (Ms), Marketing Executive, Sales & Marketing (BSI), at marketing@sato-int.com

....................................................................................................................................................................

About Barcode SATO International (BSI)

Barcode SATO International (BSI), the global sales headquarters of SATO Corporation, is a world leader of automatic identification products including barcode printers. BSI 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, BSI is rapidly strengthening its own team, as well as that of its overseas group member companies. BSI is the driving force behind SATO Corporation’s global branding strategy and expansion into new markets and territories.

About SATO

SATO is a pioneer in the Automatic Identification and Data Collection (AIDC) industry, and the inventor of the world’s first electronic thermal transfer barcode printer. It revolutionised the barcoding industry by introducing the Data Collection System (DCS) and Labelling concept – a total barcode and labelling solutions approach providing high quality barcode printers, scanners/hand held terminals, label design software and consumables. SATO is a public listed company in Japan and has worldwide offices in United States, Germany, United Kingdom, Poland, Belgium, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and China. SATO reported revenues of US$445 million in 2002. SATO stock is traded on first section of Tokyo Stock Exchange. More information can be found at www.sato.co.jp.