- NIVS cooperates with top Chinese retailers Gome and Suning -
- NIVS cooperates with online distributors Joyo.com and Bandao.cn -
HUIZHOU, China, June 18 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- NIVS IntelliMedia Technology Group, Inc., (NYSE Amex: NIV) ("NIVS" or the "Company"), an integrated consumer electronics company that designs, manufactures, markets and sells intelligent audio and video products, today announced a significant expansion of its retail presence via a strategic partnership with China's leading home appliance chain retailers Gome Electronic Appliance Co. Ltd. ("Gome") and Suning Appliance Co. Ltd. ("Suning").
Benefiting from its recent CCTV advertising campaign, NIVS has rapidly gained a strong reputation among retailers and consumers. The integrated marketing campaign has strategically raised NIVS's brand recognition and assisted its distribution channel expansion. In the past two months, NIVS has been successfully signing cooperation agreements with top domestic retailers, including Gome, Suning, Joyo.com and shop.bandao.cn. Driven by the rapid expansion of its retail business in recent months, the Company is planning to establish a retailing department dedicated to managing all of its retail-related businesses.
Gome was founded in Beijing in 1987. It is the largest household electrical appliances retailer in Mainland China with 151 distribution centers and has developed an effective loyalty program with membership reaching 22 million. Gome's call centers feature about 500 operators and they own over 2,300 contracted repair service stations. As of the first quarter 2009, Gome owned over 1,300 stores in 329 large- and medium-sized cities throughout China.
Suning, a leading chain retailer of 3C products (Consumer appliances, Computer and Communication products) in China, operates nearly 700 stores in over 150 cities, boasting a staff size of 92,000 as of May 2008. According to statistics from the Ministry of Commerce, Suning ranks 3rd among China's chain store corporations, with sales revenues that reached 85.4 billion RMB (US $12.5b) in 2007. Suning is today a leader in China's home appliance industry, with the highest home appliance sales revenue in each of its stores this past quarter.
Joyo.com, a subsidiary of China's B2C e-commerce leader Joyo, is one of the most influential e-commerce sites in China, and is now owned by Amazon. Shop.bandao.cn is the largest online directory of vendors in Shandong province.
To echo the expansion of its retail business, the Company will continually focus on developing innovative products. Currently, NIVS's product portfolio includes stereos, TVs, digital video boxes (DVB), DVD players and other peripheral equipment and products. The Company has persistently invested in researching and developing intelligent voice-control products, and now offers about 250 standard and 30 intelligent audio/visual products. Combining solid technology, design and manufacturing with its marketing and distribution platform, which is now being strongly expanded through partnerships with top retailers, NIVS hopes to further elevate its brand name and product awareness among consumers.
Mr. Tianfu Li, Chairman and CEO of NIVS, commented, "Through our cooperation with top retailers, NIVS will be able to penetrate more effectively into the Chinese consumer market. Specifically, our partnerships with leading retailers such as Gome and Suning will provide us a growing access to broader regions, as they are further expanding their networks in China's northern and western cities. In addition, these retailers will help NIVS strengthen our marketing message, customizing it for targeted local customers. Given this, we are confident that these strategic alliances with leading retailers will further diversify our marketing and sales promotion channels and further expand NIVS's distribution network in China as we march swiftly towards our goal of becoming a household brand name in China."
About NIVS IntelliMedia Technology Group, Inc.
NIVS IntelliMedia Technology Group is an integrated consumer electronics company that designs, manufactures, markets and sells intelligent audio and video products in China, Greater Asia, Europe, and North America. The NIVS brand has received "Most Popular Brand" distinction in China's acoustic industry for three consecutive years, among numerous other awards. Ranked 43rd on Forbes' Top 100 Chinese Research and Development Companies, NIVS has developed leading Chinese speech interactive technology, which forms a foundation for the Company's intelligent audio and visual systems, including digital audio, LCD televisions, digital video broadcasting ("DVB") set-top boxes, peripherals and more.
Safe Harbor Statement
This release contains certain "forward-looking statements" relating to the business of the Company and its subsidiary companies. These forward looking statements are often identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "believes, expects" or similar expressions. Such forward looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to the Company's reliance on its major customers for a large portion of its net sales; the Company's ability to develop and market new products; the Company's ability to continue to borrow and raise additional capital to fund its operations; the Company's ability to collect aging trade receivables and the effect of a growing doubtful account allowance; the Company's ability to accurately forecast amounts of supplies needed to meet customer demand; exposure to market risk through sales in international markets; the market acceptance of the Company's products; exposure to product liability and defect claims; fluctuations in the availability of raw materials and components needed for the Company's products; protection of the Company's intellectual property rights; changes in the laws of the PRC that affect the Company's operations; development of a public trading market for the Company's securities; and the cost of complying with current and future governmental regulations and the impact of any changes in the regulations on the Company's operations. Investors should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors, including the discussed above and in the Company's periodic reports that are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available on its website (www.sec.gov). All forward-looking statements attributable the Company or to persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these factors other than as required under the securities laws. The Company does not assume a duty to update these forward-looking statements.
