38 years after its first establishment in 1965 in Beirut, Lebanon, the Company has expanded into Russia, Ukraine, Egypt, Algeria, Armenia, Bulgaria*, Cyprus, and the United States of America, with antennas and correspondents in most major cities around the world.

Established in Nicosia, Cyprus in 1984 as an offshore Corporation, Stambouli Enterprises (Cyprus) Ltd acts as the pivot and the General Head Office for the Stambouli operation, centralizing purchases for the different offices, though each company is fully autonomous in its management.

Manufacturing, distribution, import, export, mail-order, publishing, audiotel, these are today Stambouli's expansion arms for the challenging future. And if the first founding generation is still at the commands, the new generation is already deeply involved into its Management, assuring continuity for the years ahead.

The Stambouli venture began in Lebanon in 1965, where the Company grew to be one of the world leaders in the amusement and leisure fields. In 1975, the devastating war in Lebanon brought further challenges, and the Company started expanding its wings into Europe, the Americas, Africa and as far as Japan by 1980, constantly diversifying its activities and adapting its structures to the world changing conditions.

Throughout the last 38 years in business, the Company witnessed, through its commercial operation, the tragic war in Lebanon, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the economical downfall of Bulgaria*, the tragic devaluation of the Ruble in Russia, the drastic shrinking of the coin-operated industry, but managed to keep a standing growth through diversification and expansion into new territories.

Today Stambouli is by far the leader in the mail-order industry in all countries where it is involved into this activity, either under the Corporate name of Post Shop or Post Shopping, marketing products manufactured under its own brand names such as ViaTonic, and publishing successful books and magazines (VIVA in Russia). Recently the Company entered in Algeria into the audiotel industry developing a new very promising line of business, and into the surplus and liquidation stocks in the USAthrough its Company ViaTrading Corporation in Los Angeles.

The Company is constantly looking into new fields and new territories in order to expand its operation, while constantly searching for new products to market.

Brief summary of the operation at the end of 2002

The Moscow office, established in 1994 is the base of the mail order operation in the CIS. Due to the size of its operation and the Russian language used in most countries of the CIS, Post Shop is the strategic location for expansion in this part of the world. Post Shop is the largest mail order company in Russia. In April 2003 the Company moved to much larger premises concentrating 75% of its activities under one roof, activities previously spread in over 6 locations.

Post Shopping in Kiev started its operation in 1997 and has rapidly grown into becoming the major mail order company in Ukraine. The Company also moved to larger premises in October of 2002, again concentrating under one roof 100% of its activities previously spread into a number of different locations. In addition the Kiev office operates 3 shops in Ukraine's capital.

In Algeria, where the Company was established in 2002, the Group is proud to announce that apart from its mail order activity through Post Shop (Algeria) Ltd and its import activity through Imapex (Algeria) Ltd, it has secured and exclusive license from "Entreprise Nationale de Télévision" to market its products on the Algerian television and with "Algérie Télécom" to operate the first audiotel system in the country. The Algerian company has installed in March 2003 the audiotel center in Algiers that went into operation in April 2003.

In Yerevan, Armenia, the Company is established inside the Main Post Office of Armenia, thus considerably reducing transmission delays and transport of packages to and from the Post Office.

In Cairo, Countertrade Ltd was established in 1993 as the first company to implement the mail order system and mails over 700,000 catalogs in Arabic to the constantly increasing number of customers.

In Lebanon, where the group is established since 1965, the mail-order division was created in 1998 and operates from two locations, Hamra Street in the heart of Beirut, and from Zouk, on the outskirts of Beirut, serving the whole country. Of course, the Company still operates amusement centers, including the famous Drugstore-Pavillon, the notorious Barbarella, Katateco Center, Apollo, etc...

In the United States,ViaTrading Corporationstarted its activities late in November 2002, and the first three months of operation indicate an excellent potential for the niche market selected for its launch.

2002: sales growth in the mail order division alone indicated a progress of 20% in one commercial year, while net profits resulted in a 30% increase. The Cyprus Head office, located in the heart of Nicosia is being restructured to accommodate this growth, as this is where strategic decisions are taken and marketing plans set up.

The group is continuing to examine opportunities to expand geographically through either acquisitions or internal growth and we are now targeting two new markets for the incoming years, Kazakhstan and Belarus.

* As from October 1999, Stambouli (Bulgaria Ltd) is independently managed by the Stambouli Family Trust