General Cable Industries acquires Plastic Insulated Cables Released 21 June 2002 General Cable Industries, Thatcham-based cable manufacturer and member of US headquartered The Marmon Group of companies, has acquired Andover (UK) based Plastic Insulated Cables Limited from Twentsche Kable Holding. Nick Carver, Managing Director of GCI, commenting on the acquisition, said, “Bringing PIC into the GCI group has expanded our high performance data cable product portfolio and also added significant additional technical and manufacturing expertise. PIC’s customer base, product portfolio and physical location also have a high degree of synergy with GCI”. The acquisition sees expansion in all areas of GCI. It enables GCI to offer a wide range of high performance Category 5E, 6 and 7 backbone and horizontal data cables in UTP, FTP and S-FTP configurations; the customer service team is significantly increased with the addition of internal and external technical sales staff who are supported by an enlarged Technical and Development department. In addition, the combined coverage of GCI and PIC’s European, Middle East and African Distributors will make GCI a key supplier in this region. Mike Hudson, Chief Executive Sales & Marketing, said, “the move brings significant benefits to existing customers of both companies as they now have access to a very wide range of copper cables from the same supplier. Our product portfolio now encompasses internal telephone cable - up to 200 pairs, solid and patch data cable in Category 5 to 7, alarm cable and Belden equivalents.” Nick Carver also stated that “PIC has an excellent reputation in the market for product innovation, recently confirmed with the launch of the first non-central separator Category 6 cable to be independently verified. It also excels in quality and service; recent supplier partnership deals with major pan-European are evidence of PIC’s excellent all-round capabilities. We will be working hard in the immediate future further to strengthen and enlarge our product offering by utilising PIC’s experience to capitalise on the market’s demands for ever greater bandwidth; network specifiers and user are rapidly adapting Cat 6 as an industry standard.” *** Ends: body copy 332 words *** Notes to Editors. For further information: GCI contact: Richard Gray European Sales & Marketing Manager GCI Ltd Aylesford Way Thatcham Berkshire RG19 4ND England tel: + 44 1635 861700 fax: + 44 1635 290200 richard.gray@gcicables.com www.gcicables.com Agency contact: Nigel May Parkfield Parkfield House Damerham Hants SP6 3HQ tel: + 44 (0)1725 518321 fax: + 44 (0)1725 518378 Nigel_May@parkfield.co.uk www.parkfield.co.uk GCI is a member of The Marmon Group of companies, an international association of more that 100 autonomous manufacturers, with group sales in excess of $6 billion. GCI has been manufacturing telephone, data, alarm and Belden equivalent cables for more than 15 years and is the cable supplier partner to many leading network systems manufactures; its products are also widely available through wholesalers and distributors throughout Europe and the Middle East.