Zuken Announces Start-Up Company Novacad, as European CADSTAR Distributor of the Year

Munich, Germany – July 5, 2005 - Novacad has been named Zuken's European CADSTAR distributor of the year for 2004-2005. The company, located in the South of France, achieved the highest yearly sales in Europe for Zuken's desktop PCB design solution, CADSTAR.

Novacad was launched as an independent venture by co-founders Robert Gianotti and Philippe Biran just last July, as a spin-off from Zuken in France. Despite the challenges of being a start-up company and having just nine months to generate winning sales levels for the complete financial year, Novacad stormed ahead with the highest CADSTAR sales levels in Europe.

CADSTAR is Zuken's Windows-based desktop PCB design solution. It is designed for ease-of-use and easy integration into other design environments while preserving legacy data. Novacad's vast experience and knowledge relating to the functionality of CADSTAR in areas such as schematic capture, placement, routing, library creation and management, signal integrity, EMC analysis, and production of manufacturing data is the grounding for their success.

Philippe Biran, Managing Director, said: "Although revenue from big accounts has been decreasing, we have managed to capture the part of the market consisting of small and medium sized companies. The high retention rates, coupled with the introduction of a considerable number of new customers, have played a significant role in our achievement."

Jeroen Leinders, European, American and Asian West CADSTAR Distribution Manager comments: "Keeping existing customers satisfied has been one of the core reasons for Novacad's accomplishment. Their commitment to providing quality support and training, has built up strong customer loyalty, which in turn has yielded great results. We are pleased to be working with such dedicated teams."

About Novacad:

Novacad was founded in June 2004 by two ex-members of Zuken staff, who combined, bring 28 years of experience in CADSTAR sales and support. Robert Gianotti, Application Engineer, and Philippe Biran, Managing Director of Novacad, have been working together successfully since 1990, and are joined by Alain Gillet, who is responsible for training and OLE development for CADSTAR.

For more information about Novacad visit www.novacad.fr or for more details on CADSTAR go to www.cadstarworld.com.

For further information & reader enquiries:

Europe: Dionne Knowles, Zuken Ltd., 1500 Aztec West, Almondsbury, Bristol, BS32 4RF, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 1454 207800	E-mail: Dionne.Knowles@zuken.co.uk
Fax: +44 (0) 1454 207803	Web: www.zuken.com
Americas: Amy Clements, Zuken USA, 238 Littleton Road, Suite 100, Westford, MA 01886, USA
Tel: (972) 691-3284	E-mail: Amy.Clements@zuken.com
Fax: (972) 692-1304	Web: www.zuken.com

About Zuken:
Established in 1976, Zuken has evolved into a provider of solutions that maximize the efficiency of the design and manufacturing processes of electronics companies around the world. Zuken holds a leading global share of the PCB/MCM/HIC software market in the field of electronic design automation (EDA). In addition to its longstanding experience as a provider of innovative solutions for PCB design, Zuken’s expanded portfolio encompasses proven solutions for the development of information technology (IT) infrastructures. Listed on Level 1 of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the company is headquartered in Japan and has development, sales and support centers in 10 countries including the US, Germany, UK and France. Zuken's customers include the world's top 30 electronics manufacturers from automotive to aerospace, communications to consumer electronics, and medical to military.
www.zuken.com