NEWS FROM AMSCREEN

BP appoints Amscreen as exclusive digital signage partner

Sir Alan Sugar’s company secures exclusive five year deal

Amscreen, Sir Alan Sugar’s new digital signage company, has been appointed by BP’s UK retail business as its exclusive digital signage partner following an extensive procurement process for the contract. The selection of Amscreen for the five year contract follows comprehensive trials in BP forecourts over the last two years, incorporating both technical and consumer research testing.

Initially, Amscreen’s close proximity-signage units will be installed in BP’s 335 company-owned sites from spring 2009, with the concept being offered to BP's 800 dealer partners towards the end of the year. The screens will carry customer information such as live traffic updates, which proved a huge success during the customer trials, as well as advertising for BP products and services. In addition, the network will carry messages from national and regional advertisers eager to reach the 7 million motorists who use BP forecourts in the UK each week.

The launch of the Amscreen network comes at a time when the Digital Out of Home market is buoyant, with the size of market ever-growing and expected to quadruple to a worth of £248 million by 2012. The network will be utilising Amscreen’s bespoke ‘plug and play’ technology, which allows screen content to be remotely updated without the need for any extra cabling or IT input, on site.

Amscreen is run by CEO Simon Sugar, former Commercial Director of Amstrad, with Sir Alan Sugar as Chairman. The BP negotiations were led by Simon Sugar and Development Director Lee McQueen, winner of TV series The Apprentice.

Simon Sugar commented: “We’re delighted to announce this deal with BP and to be rolling out the Amscreen network throughout their stores. We believe that our ‘plug and play’ system utilises the most practical and scalable solutions available and that our manufacturing experience, combined with our unique end-to-end wireless technology, delivers a low-cost digital solution of the highest quality. We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship with BP.”

Richard Harding, UK Convenience Retail Director, for BP said: “We are excited to announce the roll-out of the Amscreen network in our stores. We are continually looking for innovative ways to communicate to our customers. Amscreen’s products enable us to present relevant, useful and timely information in a highly engaging format. We see this as a great opportunity to improve the safety and efficiency of customers’ journeys for example by providing traffic updates whilst also sharing news of our great promotions, products and services. ”

For more information on Amscreen, go to www.amscreen.co.uk



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For more information, please contact



Frank PR – 020 7693 6999 / amscreen@frankpr.it



Mark Salt, BP Retail press office, 01908 853828 mark.salt@uk.bp.com


Sheila Williams, BP group press office, 0207 496 4851 sheila.williams@uk.bp.com

Notes to editors

Amscreen is Sir Alan Sugar’s new digital signage company, run by CEO Simon Sugar, former Commercial Director of Amstrad www.amscreen.co.uk

BP, through its Convenience Retail business owns and operates over 300 forecourt stores in the UK, including over 260 award winning BP Connect and Wild Bean Cafes sites - many of which now have a M&S Simply Food offer in partnership with M&S. There are a further 800 BP branded sites owned and operated by independent dealers. BP has 16% of the market share of the UK fuel for forecourts.