BUILDING FROM ITS STRONG LINKS WITH THE US, WALES DIRECT STORMS UK ONLINE E-COMMERCE AWARDS

A Welsh on-line shop with strong links in the States has recently won a prestigious e-commerce award in the UK. Wales Direct sells a wide range of Welsh goods to an International audience, with most sales and support coming from the US.

With a lot of help and support from its American customers, a Welsh Internet company has recently won a highly prestigious e-commerce award. Managed from its small offices in the centre of Brecon, in the beautiful Brecon Beacons National Park, Wales Direct (www.wales-direct.com) is an on-line shop selling a wide range of contemporary and traditional Welsh goods to a predominantly North American audience of expatriates and tourists.

Trading successfully since 1998, the site has been frequently enhanced before realising its current incarnation, which is proving extremely popular with the companys devoted customer base. The site has an extensive product range with everything a Welsh expatriate could hanker for including Welsh books and music through to lovespoons (made famous by Catherine Zeta Jones at her wedding to Michael Douglas) and even the Welsh delicacy, laverbread (otherwise known as seaweed). It also offers great functionality, simple navigation and international features such as a currency converter and a database of Welsh Societies.

And its these features that have won the company the E-trading category and 2000 prize money at the Welsh E-commerce awards. Set up by the governments UK online for business and Interforum, the E-Commerce awards were open to any organisation with up to 249 employees to reward organisations that successfully use e-commerce, new technologies or the Internet to improve their business.

Nigel Roberts, Managing Director of Wales Direct commented:

We are absolutely delighted. We pride ourselves on the end-to-end service provided by Wales Direct, a service that results in many compliments from our customers. There is a nice personal element to Wales Direct too, helping people with individual gifts, weddings and functions. We recently shipped a variety of food and gifts to Oregan for organisers of a school trip who wanted to entertain their U.S. hosts and have several thousand American customers who return to the site again and again. It is these relationships that have made Wales Direct what it is today and we are very grateful to our friends over the water for their support.

We hope to expand the shop over the next year and the 2000 prize money will be very useful in this task. In this way we will impress more people worldwide with what Wales can offer!"

You can visit Wales Direct at www.wales-direct.com for a wide range of quality Welsh goods as well as links to International Welsh Societies and other sites of interest. Future developments will include a discussion forum, a newsfeed containing quirky Welsh news items and a selection of featured suppliers such as the National Museums & Galleries of Wales and Conwy Potteries.

8th July 2002

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Notes to the editor:

About Wales Direct
Wales Direct is Wales' first and largest on-line shop selling contemporary and traditional Welsh goods to an International market. Started in 1998, the site was re-launched in 2001 with improved functionality and a new design.

Aimed at ex-patriates, tourists and people living in Wales, the site aims to extend the reach of suppliers selling Welsh products and promote Wales in a profitable manner.

About UK Online
UK online for business is a partnership between Government and industry and promotes the use of e-commerce among small and medium sized businesses.

For further press information, please contact:

Paula Dauncey, Marketing Manager, Imaginet   
Tel:      +44 2920 255515
Email:      paula.dauncey@imaginet.co.uk