Contract signed for a new store in Sweden

Clas Ohlson has signed a contract regarding a new store at Valbo Shopping Center, Gävle, Sweden. The retail space will amount to a total of 1,449 square metres. The store’s catchment area comprises approximately 94,000 residents and the store is scheduled to open in autumn 2011/winter 2012.

Future store establishments that have been contracted to date are: Akseli Shopping Centre, Mikkeli, Finland in June 2011; Flygstaden Shopping Centre, Halmstad, Sweden in June 2011; Newcastle, UK in August 2011; Gränby, Uppsala, Sweden in August 2011; Buskerud Storsenter Shopping centre, Nedre Eiker, Norway in September 2011; Erikslund, Västerås, Sweden in September 2011; Palokka Shopping area, Jyväskylä, Finland in September 2011; Byporten Kjøpesenter, Mo i Rana, Norway in October 2011; Bogstadsveien, Oslo, Norway in October 2011; Alta, Norway in October/November 2011; Karisma, Lahti, Finland in November/December 2011; Valbo Shopping Center, Gävle, Sweden in autumn 2011/winter 2012; Elverum, Norway in Ferbruary/March 2012; Kongssenteret Shopping Centre in Kongsvinger, Norway in winter/spring 2012; Norrtälje, Sweden in spring 2012; Ängshagen Shopping area, Lidköping, Sweden in spring 2012; Willa Shopping Centre, Hyvinkää, Finland in October 2012; Matkus Shopping area, Kuopio, Finland in October 2012; Amfi Ørsta, Ørsta, Norway in autumn 2012; Norra Backa Shopping area, Borlänge, Sweden in autumn 2012; Emporia, Malmö, Sweden during the 2011/2012 financial year and Mobilia Shopping Centre, Malmö, Sweden in autumn 2013.

During the 2011/12 financial year we aim to establish 17-22 stores of which 2-4 in Finland and 1-4 in the UK. With currently 141 stores and 22 contracted stores, Clas Ohlson will have a total of 163 stores, of which 70 in Sweden, 59 in Norway, 22 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.

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 and Norwich.

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