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The shareholders of Keene Repro Limited (Keenes), the central London pre-media company, signed an agreement on 1 October 2007 to sell their shares to Wellcom Group Limited (Wellcom), an Australian-based provider of pre-media and digital asset management services.

Keenes, established in 1970, today supplies a wide range of pre-media solutions to advertising agencies, retailers and corporates. It has sites in London and Hampshire and employs more than 70 people. With a top-drawer client base that includes Harlequin Mills & Boon, GAP Inc, Sony, HSBC, Harrods and DKNY, annual turnover has grown steadily to more than £5 million. Since April 2005, Keenes has also forged partnerships with many leading UK publishing agencies, such as Redwood, to service a wide range of blue chip clients.

"After 37 years of successful leadership by chief executive Fred Keene, we see this as the ideal time to become part of a group that has a heritage built on a comparable foundation of business ethos, technical scope and core values," says Keenes managing director Jeff Keene. "Becoming part of Wellcom, will allow us to significantly increase operational scale and introduce new technological developments, enabling us to remain a leader in the industry and ensure maximum benefit for our clients."

Listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, Wellcom (ASX:WLL) has a solid track record of profitability and growth and is one of Australia's leading pre-media companies. The business had revenue of approximately £42M for the year ended 30 June 2007, encompassing it's core pre-media business, and it's joint venture with the Australian Postal Corporation in the print management arena.

Wayne Sidwell, chairman and chief executive of Wellcom, says: "Keenes is a strong fit with our existing business, given the similarity of our services and target markets. The acquisition creates the opportunity for the introduction of our successful Total Facilities Management (TFM) concept to the UK market. In addition, Keenes gives Wellcom direct exposure to the multi-national brands headquartered in the UK, as we seek increased market penetration for our industry-leading Knowledgewell proprietary software. Wellcom has had an interest in extending its geographical reach beyond Australia for some time. After careful consideration of the opportunities available, we believe we have found in Keenes a strong base from which to establish a meaningful presence in the European market and one which offers real synergistic growth opportunities for our existing Australian-based business."