Leading Engineering Solutions Provider, Trek 2000 International Ltd ("Trek or "the Company") today announced that the Group has secured two contracts relating to the Group's ThumbDrive Solutions with Circuit City Stores, Inc. ("Circuit Stores"), a major US-based retailer, and Italian based Eutron.

The aggregate value of both contracts is estimated to total about S$5 million per annum. Trials shipments were effected to both customers in February and March this year. These contracts will have a positive impact on the Group's turnover and profitability in the current financial year.

Commenting on the two new contracts, Mr Henn Tan, Chairman and CEO of Trek said, "these two contracts are ongoing and open ended. However, for our business planning purpose, all parties have used very conservative estimates when computing the requirements. Hence the estimated annual values of both contracts have been arrived at based on very conservative computation basis."

[A] Circuit City Stores, Inc. ("Circuit City"), USA

Under the terms of the contract, the Group's ThumbDrive SMART mobile storage devices will be carried by Circuit City (NYSE: CC). The retailer will carry the Group's ThumbDrive SMART in 32MB, 64MB, and 128MB configurations.

Circuit City operates in more locations than any other consumer electronics specialty retailer with 604 Circuit City Superstores and 20 mall-based Circuit City Express stores in USA.

The Group's ThumbDrive SMART is a mobile storage device with a self-contained USB interface that epitomizes plug and play. Lightweight and compact, ThumbDrive is ideal for mobile users and requires no installation of drivers. ThumbDrive SMART allows the storage and transfer of large data files – including digital audio and video files, presentation files and accounting data or CAD files – between desktops and notebooks. Simply plug in the ThumbDrive Smart and start transferring files, making it easier than ever to move data from one PC to another.

[B] Eutron, Itema Group, Italy

The second contract is with Eutron, a leading international company specialising in information security solutions. Eutron is an established international player in the IT scene, with a comprehensive range of products comprising hardware and software USB tokens for user identification, strong authentication, encryption, secure web access, secure certificate storage, digital signature, smartcard reading, software protection, PC access control, biometric recognition.

Under its contract with Eutron, the Group will provide its ThumbDrive technology for Eutron's line of USB storage devices, PicoDisk and PicoDisk Crypto. The ThumbDrive technology will be integrated into Eutron's encryption technology to produce the PicoDisk and PicoDisk Crypto storage devices in Singapore.

"This partnership with Eutron stems from the Group's strategic plans to market its ThumbDrive technology worldwide on an ODM (Original Design Manufacturer) basis. The arrangement with Eutron is significant for the Group as it marks our first ODM foray into Europe after our successful deals in the US with IBM, Sonnet and iGo. It is a synergistic alliance in terms of technology and products and gives Trek the opportunity to leverage on Eutron's established brand name and distribution network in the growing European market," said Henn Tan.

The size of a car key and weighing merely 12 gram, PicoDisk and PicoDisk Crypto storage devices with self-contained USB interface that not only make transporting data incredibly fast and easy but also user-friendly and hassle-free. Users only need to plug it into a USB port of a PC or laptop and it will act like any other mass storage devices. No cables, batteries or external power supply are required.

PicoDisk Crypto is the world's first cryptographic flash memory USB key that stores confidential data with high security, sophisticated encryption and ease of use for the safety of sensitive information. With secure symmetric encryption algorithm (AES) capabilities, a fully encrypted USB drive automatically encrypts files on transfer from an external source to the device, and even after use. Whenever the user plugs or unplugs the key, he is prompted to enter the PIN to unlock the key and further proceed with encrypt/decrypt operations while reading/writing files, thus protecting the data from theft or loss.

PicoDisk Crypto allows storage of files encrypted up to 512 MB in a portable device that is tiny enough to tuck away in a shirt pocket or attach to a key-ring.

PicoDisk and PicoDisk Crypto come in various storage capacities of 8 MB to 512 MB, retailing at 39.00 to 829.00 EURO, and are available in the worldwide market now.