Partnership with GE Capital in 'Zendor.com'
Brown (N.) Group PLC
7 February 2000
N Brown Group plc and GE Capital announce
strategic partnership in E-fulfilment
N Brown Group plc, the Manchester based direct home shopping company,
announces that it has entered into a strategic partnership with GE Capital to
develop Zendor.com, the e-commerce fulfilment service for home shopping
businesses in the UK.
As part of the agreement, GE Capital's international consumer financial
services subsidiary, GE Capital Global Consumer Finance, will assist in
managing the business.
The partnership adds further significant capabilities to Zendor.com's
fulfilment strengths. GE Capital's world class experience in global consumer
credit, linked with Zendor.com's fulfilment services, now provides a complete
solution for Zendor.com's retail and end consumer clients, from on and off
line credit facilities through to order processing on a large scale.
The main features of the partnership are:
- GE Capital will market the enhanced Zendor.com service to its existing
and future retailer clients in the UK.
- N Brown will benefit from GE's worldwide process, quality, and customer
relationship programmes as well as leveraging GE's purchasing power to
further reduce costs.
- GE Capital's involvement increases the business base and potential
revenues of Zendor.com such that it enhances N Brown's expected benefits,
both commercially and operationally, from the venture.
- GE Capital receives 25% of the equity of Zendor.com in recognition of the
enhanced infrastructure it adds to the business.
- As part of the venture, N Brown will benefit from 25% of the Zendor.com-
generated credit card profits.
- Profits of the Zendor.com business will be shared 75%/25% between N Brown
and GE Capital respectively.
- As well as the infrastructure enhancements that GE Capital brings to
Zendor.com with its participation in the partnership, it will pay an
additional cash consideration of up to £6.6m to N Brown.
- N Brown and GE Capital will work together to explore further and invest
in the further exploitation of opportunities in the areas of e-commerce,
logistics and information sharing in the UKdevelopment, on a global
basis, and the leverage of customer information.
Stuart Sinclair, Chief Executive of GE Capital Global Consumer Finance, said:
'We are pleased to become a partner of N Brown. This step allows us to
continue to grow our e-commerce capability, and will enable us to service more
fully new e-tailers as well as established retailers seeking to participate in
e-commerce.'
Commenting on this partnership, Jim Martin, Chief Executive of N Brown said:
'GE Capital's leading position and reputation in the credit market will add
both depth and further scope to the Zendor.com proposition, while introducing
it to a wider audience. Their considerable skills in credit, information,
logistics, and customer management, along with the benefits of scale will help
N Brown's core home shopping business and Zendor.com to accelerate the
realisation of their various strategies.'
For further information please contact:
Jim Martin On the day: 020 7457 2345
N Brown Group plc Thereafter: 0161 236 8256
Gerald Gradwell/Luisa Winnett Tel: 020 7457 2345
Gavin Anderson & Company
Craig Kershaw
GE Capital Europe Tel: 020 7302 6145
Notes to Editors:
N Brown announced Zendor.com at its interim results last October. The service
offers fulfilment, providing everything from assistance with product sourcing;
warehousing; provision of call centre services; customer care and accounts
support; web site preparation to home delivery, collection and processing of
returns. It recently announced a marketing partnership with AHL Services,
Inc, to handle fulfilment services for AHL clients operating in the UK.
GE Capital is a global, diversified financial services company with assets of
approximately $345 billion. A wholly owned subsidiary of General Electric
Company, GE Capital, based in Stamford, Connecticut, USA, provides equipment
management, mid-market and specialised financing, speciality insurance and a
variety of consumer services, such as car leasing, home mortgages and credit
cards, to businesses and individuals around the world. GE is a diversified
manufacturing, technology and services company with operations worldwide.
GE has made it a priority to migrate its traditional 'brick and mortar'
businesses to new e-business models. In 1999, e-Business became an official GE
initiative, joining Six Sigma, Globalisation and Services as the key growth
strategies for the Company. In its first year, GE's e-business initiative
yielded more than $1 billion in online sales. For 2000, the Company's e-
Business strategic direction is three-fold: ensure that every GE business has
a Customer Web Center offering the highest quality service, sales and support
online; migrate internal procurement and supplier resources to the web to take
advantage of increased productivity and cost savings; and ongoing development
of new technologies and services that will contribute to online sales growth.