EURO-K

Story dated 4th September 2002.

Good news for pinball players in Belgium and The Netherlands with the appointment of two distributors for Stern games.

Brussels-based Namusco will hold the exclusive distribution rights for Belgium and JVH Gaming of Tilburg will work with Namusco to cover the Dutch market.

The situation across much of Europe has been difficult since the closure of Nova at the start of the year. Since then Bergmann Automaten has been appointed as distributor for Germany and now Belgium and The Netherlands are covered too.

Europe has always been a strong market for pinball manufacturers accounting for half of all sales at one point but over the last couple of years this has diminished. Playboy, however has recovered some of the lost ground with more sales headed for Europe than the USA and Stern expects equal sales in the two markets for RollerCoaster Tycoon - recent figures had put US sales at 60% of the total. The boost to European sales has been in part due to the weakening Dollar and the strengthening Euro.

The appointment of these two distributor will help build sales in Europe. Gary Stern said: "We are extremely happy to have such great partners in Namusco and JVH representing our pinball machines in Europe. We know that they will both do a great job of promoting our games."

For Namusco, Bernard Leroy says, "We are very happy to once again be Stern's distributor out of Brussels. They have a great game with Rollercoaster Tycoon and their MONOPOLY™ and Playboy games are excellent too."

For JVH, Gunther Rozen commented, "Stern is a great pinball company with a lot of experience and know-how. We see that players in Holland missed pinball in their locations and we responded to their demands. We look forward to working with Namusco and selling Stern's Rollercoaster Tycoon pinball machine."

Lets hope the two companies can help arrest the decline of Pinball in the two countries.

 

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