SAN DIEGO – August 3, 2007 – On July 1, 2007, Trade Service Company, LLC, acquired the office products Data Services business of ECI2 Europe, also known as NPS.  The companies will continue their longstanding partnership, believing that this separation from ECI2 will be good for the industry and good for Data Services customers.  Trade Service has been serving the office products industry in the United States since 1919 and provides data services to over 1,700 office products dealers.

This acquisition allows both ECI2 Europe and Trade Service to focus on their respective core competencies, which the companies expect will translate into improved content solutions to the customer.  “Our goals are to continue providing the same standard of excellence you currently receive from the service,” states Tod Moore, Trade Service’s Vice President of Sales and Marketing, to the newly acquired customer base. 

Both companies view the acquisition as a natural and positive move for the European office products industry.  “Trade Service is one of the biggest data specialists in the United States,” says Ron Wotherspoon, Managing Director, ECI2 Europe, “and our experience with them during the last two years has been excellent.  We are therefore confident that they will be able to address the needs of our UK and Irish customers.”

About Trade Service
Trade Service is the leading provider of standardized product and price information to the office products, electrical, plumbing/PVF, HVACR, and industrial MRO industries. Since 1931 the company has been the leader in content acquisition, aggregation, management, publishing, and distribution, offering a variety of products, services, and systems to meet the content needs of over 20,000 dealers, distributors, contractors, and government agencies.  The range of solutions provided includes printed directories, electronic catalogs, pricing data for business system updating, and robust attributed content to fuel full-functioning Internet storefronts.  For more information, visit www.tradeservice.com, or call (800) 854-1527.

About ECI2 Europe
ECI2 Europe is the Office Product trade's premier systems supplier and for more than two decades has computerized the businesses of office supplies dealers in the UK and Ireland.  The company’s extensive industry knowledge has allowed it to develop a unique family of computer-based management systems which give dealers the power to create and manage success. For more information, visit www.eci2.eu.