Contract signed for a new store in Kotka, Finland

Clas Ohlson has signed a contract regarding a new store in Pasaati Shopping Centre, Kotka, Finland. The retail space will amount to a total of 990 square metres. The store’s catchment area comprises approximately 55,000 residents and the store is scheduled to open in May/June 2013.

Future store establishments that have been contracted to date are: Willa Shopping Centre, Hyvinkää, Finland in October 2012; Emporia, Malmö, Sweden in October 2012; Shopping Centre Skanssi, Turku, Finland in October 2012; Førde Shopping Centre, Førde, Norway in November 2012; Matkus Shopping area, Kuopio, Finland in November 2012; Lippulaiva Shopping Centre, Espoo, Finland in November 2012; Vestkanten Shopping Centre, Bergen, Norway in November 2012; Ljungheden Shopping area, Västervik, Sweden in December 2012; Vestby Arena, Vestby, Norway in November 2012; Hansa Shopping Centre, Kalmar, Sweden in March 2013; Pasaati Shopping Centre, Kotka, Finland in spring 2013; Sogndal, Norway in spring 2013; Spar Centre Shopping area in Mariehamn, Åland, Finland in spring 2013; Norra Backa Shopping area, Borlänge, Sweden in October 2013; Mobilia Shopping Centre, Malmö, Sweden in October 2013 and Kungens Kurva in Huddinge, Stockholm, Sweden in October 2013.

During the 2012/13 financial year Clas Ohlson aim to establish 15-20 new stores. With currently 164 stores and 16 contracted stores, Clas Ohlson will have a total of 180 stores, of which 76 in Sweden, 63 in Norway, 29 in Finland and 12 in the UK.

For further information, please contact:

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

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

Sampo Päällysaho, Managing Director of Clas Ohlson OY, Finland; Mobile +358 (0)43 824 4431.

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, Leeds, Birmingham, Cardiff, Doncaster, Norwich and Newcastle.

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