The SanomaWSOY Group's Rautakirja division has acquired Finnish Printcenter Oy specialising in point-of-sale (POS) marketing services and products. Printcenter will be consolidated to Rautakirja's figures as of February 15, 2007.

As a subsidiary of Rautakirja, Printcenter will become part of Rautakirja's press distribution business. In Finland, Rautakirja's press distribution is operated by the Lehtipiste business unit. Lehtipiste is a cooperation partner open to all publishers and products within the marketing and distribution of single copy sales of newspapers and magazines. In this capacity, Lehtipiste offers to the retail trade in magazines and newspapers an interesting and developing product group.

"Our objective is to anticipate our customers' needs and to continuously develop our operations. Printcenter's unique operational concept in supply chain marketing, together with the company's continuous innovation and product development in the area of merchandising, create genuine added value to our business. Furthermore, Printcenter brings a whole new and strongly developing marketing channel to the entire SanomaWSOY Group," comments Raimo Kurri, Senior Vice President of Rautakirja.

Printcenter Group's services cover the full value chain of in-store merchandising starting from the production of marketing material to logistics and merchandising services. "Lehtipiste's customers as well as Rautakirja's over 700 kiosks, 67 bookstores, and 18 movie theatres in Finland make Rautakirja an interesting partner for developing Printcenter's operations and utilising our know-how in marketing," states Hannu Tolvanen, Managing Director of Printcenter.

Printcenter's existing management and 500 employees will continue to work in the company. In 2005, Printcenter Group's consolidated net sales totalled EUR 10.7 million and its profitability was good.

In addition to Finland, Rautakirja is the market leader in press distribution in the Baltic region and the Netherlands. It is also active in press distribution operations in Russia and Romania.


Additional information:
Erkki Järvinen, CEO, Rautakirja Oy, tel. +358 9 852 8401, +358 400 455 913
Raimo Kurri, Senior Vice President, Rautakirja Oy, tel. +385 9 852 8407, +385 400 443 742
Hannu Tolvanen, Managing Director, Printcenter Oy, tel. +358 14 840 8426, +358 400 642 569


SANOMAWSOY CORPORATION


Matti Salmi
Senior Vice President
Finance and Administration


DISTRIBUTION
Helsinki Stock Exchange
Principal media