Recent Press Releases - Article

USA RELEASE: ATLANTIS GROUP TAKES 2ND PLACE IN DELOITTE RANKING -

30 OCTOBER 2001

The Atlantis Group, based here, has attained the No. 2 ranking in the first Deloitte-Unlimited 'Fast 50' index of the fastest-growing companies in New Zealand. The index was released by international professional services firm Deloitte & Touche, which each year issues identical indices of organizations throughout the world. Founded five years ago with a handful of employees, Atlantis has mushroomed into a global, multi-million-dollar database marketing and loyalty card technology company with a revenue growth rate of 414.6% over the past three years.

Atlantis' Visible Results arm has sold its revolutionary GraphiCardT loyalty card program to the likes of Mobil Oil New Zealand, KFC Australia and McDonald's Hawaii. Michael Whittaker, President and CEO, said strong international sales of GraphiCard should increase Atlantis' revenues ten-fold in the next two years. "It is an honor for our organization to be second only to Australia-owned TelstraSaturn where our growth is concerned," Whittaker stated. "However, this is just the beginning."

The company's 'Fast 50' ranking follows Whittaker's recent designation as New Zealand's "Entrepreneur of the Year" by global professional services firm Ernst & Young. In late 1996, at the age of 26, Whittaker decided to fill what he and three friends perceived as the need for a top-notch database marketing concern. In its first year, the firm, then called Atlantis Marketing, expanded its staff from four to 30 persons. Less than four years later, it had become a leader in the field of database management and had amassed a client roster that includes such blue-chip New Zealand companies as Clear Communications, Baycorp, and Tower.

In 1997, Whittaker founded Visible Results, a separate arm of the company. It has fast evolved into one of the world's leading Customer Relationship Management (CRM) companies, serving a growing client base across the convenience, fast food, fuel, and general retail fields. Earlier this year, Visible Results acquired GraphiCard T Systems of Overland Park, KS, the company whose patented GraphiCard T read/write technology serves as a unique foundation for Visible Results' loyalty card program. A separate division, Visible Results USA, was formed to introduce U.S. merchants to the technology, which is supported by a sophisticated CRM infrastructure.

About Visible Results

Since its inception in 1997, Auckland, NZ-based Visible Results Group of Companies (a business unit of Atlantis Group) has emerged as one of the world's leading customer relationship firms, serving a growing client base across convenience, fast food, fuels and the general retail industry. The company established its Visible Results USA subsidiary and a base in the US through the February 2001 acquisition of GraphiCard Systems International (GSI), Overland Park, KS. The purchase included the worldwide intellectual property patents to the unique technology that underlies all Visible Results GraphiCardT programs. Visible Results USA established a marketing office in New York City in May 2001, following the addition of veteran retail and consumer products marketing consultant Gerald Lewis to its team as Chairman.

For further information, visit the company's website at: www.visibleresults.com., or contact Visible Results USA, 230 Park Avenue, Suite 630, New York, NY 10169. Telephone is (212) 681-9159. Press Contacts: At Visible Results USA, Gerald Lewis, Chairman, (212) 681-9159; e-mail: glewis@visibleresults.com; at Visible Results Group of Companies, Michael Whittaker, President and CEO, (913) 851-9400, e-mail: Mwhittaker@tag.co.nz; at Parness & Associates Public Relations, Bill Parness or Lisa Kreda, (732) 290-0121.