ERNI Boosts Activities in Japan

Appoints Two Leading Distributors

Adelberg, Germany - April 18, 2005 - ERNI today announced the appointment of two leading distributors in Japan: Tokyo Electron Device Limited (TED) and Takumi Shoji Co, Limited. The partnerships will enable ERNI to strengthen its position in the Japanese market by offering a high level of local support and ensuring that Japanese customers will always receive rapid, case-specific support from ERNI in the Japanese language. ERNI’s sales strategy is based on rapid supply of product information, samples and products, while maintaining direct and close customer contacts. Japan is a key market “The Japanese market is very important for us. It offers an ideal mix of large and small companies in telecommunications, aerospace, railroad and industrial automation,” said Andreas Scheck, Chief Marketing Officer for ERNI. “We are delighted with our new partnerships in Japan; our teaming with Tokyo Electron Device Limited and Takumi Shoji further strengthens our global leadership as a provider of interconnect solutions", he continued. Mr. Hiroshi Odani (Vice President of TED) emphasizes ERNI’s technology solutions as one of the most important reasons for TED to go to market with ERNI interconnect products. "After careful research of the different technology and products available, we believed that ERNI offered the best solutions to meet the needs of the marketplace," said Mr. Odani. According to Mr. Tsutomu Matsumura, Senior Manager, International Division of Takumi Shoji, “ERNI has a strong range of interconnect products that have already taken numerous awards worldwide. We are delighted to bring these great products to Japan." To further increase its Japanese market penetration, ERNI will offer and support its complete range of products - from the individual connector families, to backplanes and systems technology products. About Tokyo Electron Device Limited (TED) Tokyo Electron Device Ltd. (Corporate code 2760: 2nd Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange) is a specialized electronics trading company formerly a division of Tokyo Electron Limited (Corporate code 8035: 1st Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange), a leading global producer of semiconductor manufacturing equipments.TED is a technical trading company that maximizes the use of its global marketing network to procure an extensive range of semiconductor products, boards, software and other electronic components, supplying them to over 1,000 corporate clients including Japan's leading electronics manufacturers. Further information is available at http://www.teldevice.co.jp/eng2/ About Takumi Shoji Co., Limited Takumi Shoji is headquarted in Tokyo, Japan with 8 branch offices in major metropolitan areas.  With sales in excess of  million, Takumi Shoji is provides a wide array of state-of-the-art electronic products to satisfy the diverse needs of the Japanese market. Providing personalized service to every one its more than 2000 Japanese customers is Takumi’s hallmark. By structuring its distribution organization to focus on low volume accounts, Takumi is able to satisfy customers’ needs regardless of order size. Further information is available at http://www.takumic.co.jp

ERNI ERNI Elektroapparate GmbH, a German member company of the international ERNI Holding Group, was established in 1956 and is headquartered in Adelberg (near Göppingen). ERNI develops and manufactures a wide variety of connectors for backplane and printed circuit board applications. The system technology business unit develops and produces customer-specific printed circuit board systems and backplanes. ERNI is a globally active enterprise with branch offices in Europe, North America and Asia. ERNI products are also marketed via a network of representatives and leading distributors. Further information is available at http://www.erni.com