AREE: News:
Arete Industries, Inc. Outlines Progress and Direction of Its Business
Development Plans
Friday, March 17, 2000 10:46 AM
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BOULDER, Colo., March 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Arete Industries, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: AREE) today
announced that the Company is sharpening its corporate focus, is directing all of its financial and
human resources toward the Outdoor Sports Products business and will launch an Outdoor Adventure
Community Web Site in the immediate future to market its proprietary products. The Company also
announced hiring a larger, more prominent and specialized regional accounting firm to audit its financial
statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 1999, among other matters.
Thomas P. Raabe, Arete CEO, stated that the Company had decided to turn away entirely from the
direct mail coupon business in order to direct all of its corporate, financial and human resources toward
its e-commerce venture in the outdoor adventure sports products business. "As of this date and literally
as of December 31, 1999, with few minor ongoing expenses, all operations in the coupon business had
ceased and the Company's efforts to restart a new franchise system to sell printed cooperative coupon
advertising have been terminated," Raabe stated. "We have survived a very perilous chapter in this
Company's long, rocky history, and we're now embarking on an entirely fresh and exciting path to
become a brand leader in outdoor adventure sports and new lifestyle products and services through
Arete Outdoors. Our parent company will continue to seek other attractive opportunities for
development, but will focus on developing the necessary e-commerce support and fulfillment
capabilities to support the growth and direction of Arete Outdoors in the near term."
As part of its plan, Raabe announced that Arete Outdoors, the Company's subsidiary, is building a new
Website and had recently engaged Digital Spinner, Inc. (www.Digitalspinner.com), a website design
and development company with special expertise in data-base solutions, to build it. The Company
plans to publish a fully functional AreteOutdoors.com site in mid to late April of this year, and will take
several months thereafter to be tuned up and perfected. By the middle of April 2000, Arete Outdoors
anticipates that it will be able to display prototypes of its new products for presale purposes. The
Company also has moved to a new server and will take down its corporate website
www.areteindustries.com for updating and upgrading, which should be complete in the next several
days.
"To date," Raabe stated, "Arete Outdoors has secured two patents-pending on its break-through
PowderPaw(C) snowshoe design and its Alpine Scooter(C) products. Arete Outdoors anticipates that it
will continue to prepare and file patent applications for numerous innovative products designed by Mike
Lowe at the rate of one to two patent applications per month, over the next 24 months which will
include products in numerous product categories and seasons." Greg Lowe, brother of Mike Lowe, has
been engaged both as a design consultant to assist Mike Lowe bring his products to market and
independently, to develop a line of new lifestyle products including original designs of innovative hand
and rescue tools as well as other specialty items exclusively for the Company. "Arete Outdoors will
continue the legacy of the Lowe's as icons and world renowned innovators in the outdoor adventure
sports industry to create a home base for all outdoor enthusiasts on the internet. As a management
team, we are completely dedicated to the community concept and are ready to accept the challenge of
building the bricks and mortar around this idea," Raabe stated.
The Arete Outdoors Website will be constructed as a destination site for the outdoor adventurist with
product reviews, special sections of content directed to particular events, activities and interests,
forums, classified adds, an auction site and a store, among other features. The site will feature
products, services and content provided by Mike Lowe, Greg Lowe, special contributors and other
prominent members of the outdoor adventure community. "We are uniquely positioned to create a bona
fide community site based on the Lowe reputation and universal recognition as leaders in the outdoor
industry. The value of this opportunity is difficult to estimate, but we feel quite fortunate and are very
determined not to squander the opportunity to become leaders and innovators in the e-commerce end
of this business," Raabe concluded.
Relating to the Company's recent decision to change accountants, the Company recently filed a
special report on Form 8-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission disclosing that it has
dismissed its former accountant and retained Causey Demgen & Moore, Inc. a regional accounting firm
specializing in tax and securities compliance accounting to conduct an audit of its financial statements
for its upcoming Annual Report on Form 10-KSB for the fiscal year ended December 31, 1999. The
Company gains access to a larger staff of accountants who specialize in securities and tax
accounting. There were no disagreements with Schumacher & Associates, Inc., the Company's former
Certifying Accountants in connection with the change in accountants.
Also, in connection with accounting and financial controls, the Company announced that its current
director, Thomas Y. Gorman will take a more active role in helping the Company execute its business
plan and improve and maintain its financial and accounting systems as the Company's Chief Financial
Officer on a part-time, as needed basis. Mr. Gorman has an Executive MBA from the University of
Colorado, and serves as Chief Financial Officer and a Director of In-Store Media Systems, Inc. a
Colorado publicly traded company which is developing an in-lane electronic clearing system for
manufacturer's coupons and an in-store Internet based kiosk system to distribute coupons and gather
consumer preference data at the point of sale.
Raabe stated that the immediate plans of the Company mandate retaining a larger regional accounting
firm to ensure accurate, reliable and timely financial disclosure by the Company and to assist in
developing and implementing accounting systems as the Company's new businesses gain momentum.
Also, he said, the Company is at a critical stage in its development and to be able to grow, needs the
services of Mr. Gorman whose financial and entrepreneurial expertise in developing and modeling new
business ventures will be most urgently needed to build systems and to marshal the Company's
financial resources.
Finally, Raabe stated that despite the change in accountants and the difficult transition which may
occur on the front end, that the Company intends to stay on schedule to file its annual report on a
timely basis, or by March 31, 2000 although there can be no assurance that the Company won't need
to file for an extension in the event of unforeseen problems. Raabe indicated that it was preparing
investor information packets to meet the increasing demand for information from the Company's public
shareholders. "The Company is committed to match its financial growth with internal financial, legal
and operational systems and to bring them in line with what is expected of a first rate public company,"
Raabe stated.
Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: The statements
contained herein which are not historical are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and
uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the
forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, certain delays beyond the company's control
with respect to market acceptance of new technologies or products, delays in testing and evaluation of
products and other risks detailed from time to time in the Company's filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission.
For further information, please contact: Eric Popkoff and Undiscovered Equities Research Corp.:
718-998-8124 or by email at aretepr@hotmail.com
SOURCE Arete Industries, Inc. |
