Contract signed for a new store in Finland

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Clas Ohlson has signed a contract regarding a new store in the new shopping centre Karisma in Lahti, Finland. The retail space will amount to a total of 1,350 square metres. The store’s catchment area comprises approximately 120,000 residents and the store is scheduled to open in November/December 2011.

Future store establishments that have been contracted to date are: Bromma, Stockholm, Sweden, in September 2010; Liljeholmen, Stockholm, Sweden and Lambertseter, Oslo, Norway, in October 2010; Drottninggatan, Stockholm, Sweden and Kiruna, Sweden in October/November 2010; Jönköping, Sweden in November 2010; Lillehammer, Norway, Mediagården, Stavanger, Norway and Dikeveien, Fredrikstad, Norway, in November 2010; Uleåborg, Finland in November 2010; Brierley Hill, Birmingham, UK in November/December 2010; Chapelfield Shopping Centre, Norwich, UK, St. Davids Shopping Centre, Cardiff, UK and Frenchgate Shopping Centre, Doncaster, UK in December 2010; Kristansund, Norway in March 2011; Gränby, Uppsala, Sweden, in autumn 2011; Erikslund, Västerås, Sweden in September 2011; Alta, Norway in October/November 2011; Bodø and Elverum, Norway, in November 2011; Karisma, Lahti, Finland in November/December 2011; Norrtälje, Sweden, in spring 2012 and Emporia, Malmö, Sweden, during the 2011/2012 financial year.

Clas Ohlson plans to 17-22 new stores during the 2010/2011 financial year, of which 6-10 in the UK. With currently 122 stores and 23 contracted stores, Clas Ohlson will have a total of 145 stores, of which 65 in Sweden, 51 in Norway, 18 in Finland and 11 in the UK.

For further information, please contact:

Bo Heyman, Director of Establishment, Mobile +46 (0)70-597 44 90.

Tapio Kuittinen, Managing Director of Clas Ohlson OY, Finland; Tel +358 201 11 22 30, Mobil +358 407 57 60 09.

John Womack, Director of Information and Investor Relations, +46 (0)247-444 05.

Clas Ohlson AB is a Swedish chain store that sells, amongst other things, hardware, electrical, multimedia, and home and leisure products. It is the largest hardware chain in Scandinavia. The company was founded in 1918 by the technically-minded Clas Ohlson (1895–1979), as a mail order business based in the Swedish village of Insjön, Dalarna. Initially, only manuals and technical literature were sold. He opened his first shop in Insjön in 1926 and there are now stores throughout Sweden, as well as in Norway and Finland. In 2008, the company opened its first store in the United Kingdom, in Croydon, south London. There are now stores at the Arndale Centre in Manchester, at The Harlequin in Watford, in Kingston upon Thames, Reading, Liverpool and Leeds.