*NEWS* Thursday September 16, 9:25 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
SOURCE: Arete Industries, Inc.
Arete Industries, Inc. Appoints Two Sales & Marketing Directors for Global Direct Division
Deborah Rowland and John Oddo Are Veterans with 40 Years Experience in Field
BOULDER, Colo., Sept. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Arete Industries, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: AREE - news) announced the appointment of Ms. Deborah Rowland and Mr. John Oddo to be the Sales and Marketing Directors of Global Direct Marketing Services, Inc.
(Photo: newscom.com )
Global Direct is a wholly owned subsidiary of Arete that operates a direct marketing and franchised, direct mail, co-op coupon business.
Mike Lowe, Chief Operating Officer for Arete Industries, stated that ''Mrs. Rowland and Mr. Oddo have already thoroughly redesigned our direct mail coupon program. The coupons will now be offered in full color and on glossy paper and will be price and quality competitive with the highest quality coupons on the market. At the same time, our profitability has increased by further reductions in our ongoing printing and mailing costs.''
Mrs. Rowland and Mr. Oddo will now move forward to install new, simple and efficient procedures for the company's Franchisees to operate with the company and their customers. They will oversee production, scheduling and quality control. Most importantly, they will be launching a franchise sales and training program to expand the company's existing franchise network with a new, state of the art franchise system they have developed for the company over the past two months. The Company plans to execute this new franchise program by the beginning of the year 2000.
Deborah Rowland began her direct marketing career in 1979 as customer service manager with American Advertising Distributors, a large co-op coupon franchise system which was acquired by Arete in 1992, where she increased customer satisfaction by 100%. In 1987 she became the National Sales Manager of Four Sons Marketing, national coupon brokerage, where she dramatically increased national sales. In 1991 she became Senior Sales Manager of American Town Mailer, an independent co-op coupon mailer in the Phoenix, AZ area, and tripled annual sales. In 1997 she became President of American Town Mailer and has increased its profits by 56% in just 18 months.
John Oddo has an MBA in both Marketing and Finance, and has been involved in marketing and consulting in the co-op coupon business since 1979. He has considerable expertise in coupon franchising, master franchise area development, sales organization development and training, and designing media kits and manuals. He owned and operated a Super Coups franchise in New York City for 12 years and has acted as a consultant in master franchising and franchise area development for Super Coups, Money Mailer, Valpak and other major and independent coupon franchise companies.
Lowe noted that, ''Mrs. Rowland and Mr. Oddo have over 40 years of combined experience in the customer service and sales and franchising end of the cooperative direct mail coupon business, which is exactly what this company needs at the present time to grow the business and achieve profitability. We expect their solid reputation in the business, their integrity and excellent technical backgrounds will take our coupon business to the next level in the near term. Their addition to the team will provide us with the experience, knowledge and personnel to develop and grow Global's direct marketing business into the new millennium and we are fortunate to have them.''
CONTACT: Thomas Raabe, CEO of Arete Industries, Inc., 303-247-1313; or Investor Relations: James Stock of STOCK ENTERPRISES, 702-614-0003.
VISIT: www.areteindustries.com and www.areteoutdoors.com.
SOURCE: Arete Industries, Inc.
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