HOMEPORT, THE REVOLUTIONARY UNATTENDED HOME DELIVERY SYSTEM LAUNCHES

Homeport, the revolutionary unattended home delivery system has completed the first phase of its launch programme in London. This is the first stage in its plan to become the world leader in home delivery solutions. Regent Pacific, the leading venture capital group has invested $2 million into the business to help it achieve its global ambitions.

The company will be launching its system in France and the United States later this year and a Far Eastern launch is planned for the first quarter of 2001. At the same time, Homeport will be rolling out its system in the UK after its successful London launch. Reading in Berkshire has been targeted as the next city to receive the Homeport service with the launch campaign starting in late October.

Homeport was established to provide customers with a convenient way to buy goods and services by phone, mail order or the internet without having to worry about being at home when the goods are delivered.

Home delivery is expected to grow fast to become a massive business in the next 5 to 10 years*. However, home delivery and e-shopping are hampered by the delivery problem because the majority of home delivery mechanisms are dependent on people being at home to receive their goods. Homeport is the first system which can be operated without having a large container permanently attached to the outside of your home.

*Ecom3 research forecasts that grocery, drinks and toiletries will account for over 30% of the total UK market by 2008. Verdict Research predicts that online food grocery shopping will take £5 – 8 billion of the total £80 billion UK grocery market by 2005

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The Homeport system, which has a global patent pending, operates by attaching a secure box to customers’ homes via a Homeport device which is securely bolted to the outside wall. A flexible steel cable locks the box and plugs into the Homeport – the cable can only be released again by a Homeport owner’s chip card. Once the customer has removed the delivery from the box it is then taken away by the retailer or carrier. Different sized boxes have been designed to accommodate various delivery items. There are also insulated boxes available so that chilled and frozen goods can be delivered.

Some of London’s best known independent retailers are already using the Homeport delivery mechanism including London’s oldest wine retailer, Berry Brothers; Food Ferry, the grocery home shopping company and Jeeves of Belgravia, London’s leading dry cleaner.

The intention is to grow the company through franchising the business to partner companies which will be able to build the Homeport units and install them while the Homeport team concentrates on the marketing of the product and securing retailers to use the service. In this way, the global ambitions of the company can be achieved more quickly.

Mark Lunn, marketing director of Homeport, commented: “Homeport will radically change the business to consumer marketplace worldwide. Home delivery is a significant challenge to retailers and e-tailers at the moment because it relies on people being at home. This is just unworkable because people are far too busy to sit at home waiting for a delivery van.”

“We expect Homeport to make people’s lives easier. Furthermore, it can significantly reduce delivery costs for retailers and carriers because it eliminates the constraints of time slots, it eliminates the expense of dealing with peak delivery times, it eliminates the need for redeliveries and it even makes night deliveries possible.”

“The first phase of the London launch has shown that those retailers who have signed up to the service have already achieved significant cost savings

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on home delivery. We calculate a 30% cost saving on grocery home delivery.”

Jonathan Hartnell-Beavis, joint founder and managing director of Food Ferry commented:

"One of our drivers has just completed an 18 drop delivery in three hours using the Homeport system. Normally one of our vans can’t do more than 12 deliveries in a whole day because we have to fit in with customer’s time slots. Furthermore, the time spent at each door is significantly reduced by Homeport – our drivers can plug in the box and be on their way in less than a minute; there’s no waiting for customers to answer the door.

"We are actively encouraging all of our customers to install Homeports – the take up so far has been fast. ”

Jeeves of Belgravia has recently signed up with Homeport. Martin Sloots, managing director of Jeeves, commented: "Our customers will benefit from the advantages of having their cleaning collected and delivered from their homes instead of having to take it into their offices.”

"We are also excited by the Reading launch because it means the vans we use in London during the day could be used at Reading during the night, providing large cost savings for us."

At Berry Bros, Britain's oldest wine merchant, they are meeting the e-challenge too.

Marketing Director, Simon Berry says "we are seeing a significant growth in online sales of our wine through our website. Homeport will help us increase this because we believe that those people who are ordering online are often not at home during the day to receive the wine when it is delivered. Homeport is an easy way to e-enable your home.”

Customers have also been impressed with the service.

Melissa Foks, a working mother, commented:

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"In the past I have bought groceries online but it has been more trouble than it is worth because of trying to work my life around their delivery times. With Homeport, that problem has disappeared. Whatever time I get home, my shopping is on the doorstep – it’s as though the fairies have been. The other big advantage of using Homeport for me, is that my frozen food stays frozen.”

Ends

For further information, please contact:

Mark Lunn

Homeport

Simon Robinson

Pig Communications

Notes to Editors

Early this year Homeport received $2m worth of funding from Regent Pacific Group whose managing director Jim Mellon says: "delivery is the greatest barrier to the growth of e-commerce. Homeport solves that problem better than any other system."

Background to the Homeport system

A Homeport consists of three parts:

The Homeport, roughly equivalent in size to an entry phone, which is permanently attached to the outside of the house. It cannot be pulled off.

Containers of various sizes made from steel and aluminium - light but vandal proof.

Cables, 14mm thick made of flexible steel which can withstand industrial wire cutters.

The customer owns the Homeport; the retailer or delivery company owns the boxes and the cables.

A brochure is attached which demonstrates the system visually.

The Reading test programme

The Homeport is being introduced in Reading in October. Reading has been chosen because it has a vision to be the most wired town in Britain.

1000 Homeports will be installed in the Reading postcode area.

There will be opportunities to follow through delivery programmes with a company in London to see speed and efficiency and to talk to drivers involved in Homeport deliveries.