Former Circle K Category Director Aims to Drive Prepaid Distributors Out of Large Chain Store Retailers

Opens Consulting Practice, Tefisto Partners, Focused on Maximizing Retailer Profits with Prepaid Telecom, Financial Services & Stored Value Offerings

Tempe, AZ June 24, 2004 -- Keith Brand, former Director of Category Development for Circle K Stores in charge of Prepaid Telecommunications, Financial Services and Stored Value offerings, has left Circle K to open a consulting practice to do for other retailers what he did for Circle K.

This practice, Tefisto Partners, Inc. (www.tefistopartners.com), will enable large chain store retailers to go direct to service providers, eliminating their current distributors, thus maximizing their sales and gross profit potential by improving the supply chain.

Tefisto Partners is focused on the Prepaid Telecommunications space, where Retailers are unnecessarily losing 25% to 40% of their available long distance and wireless refill gross profit dollars to unneeded distributors according to Mr. Brand. In addition, we believe retailers sales performance is being negatively impacted through poor point of purchase display, cumbersome product delivery and uninspired marketing, and we seek to drive sales growth by quickly righting these wrongs.

Mr. Brands practice will also enable new revenue and traffic driving electronically delivered products and services for retailers, including but not limited to Paycheck Cashing, Prepaid Debit Cards and Third Party Gift Cards, offerings which can be delivered through existing retailer POS infrastructure.

Weve formed Tefisto Partners simply because the opportunity at most large chain store retailers is too great to ignore. It is likely a case of you dont know what you dont know, and we seek to enable our retailer partners by sharing the information, offerings and processes theyll need in order to achieve ultimate success in this space continued Mr. Brand. At many retailers, were talking about tens of millions of dollars in lost opportunity per year that can now be activated.

There is an explosion of electronically delivered products and services underway, focused on youth, the unbanked and underbanked, and minorities. Retailers who recognize this trend, bring the products and services to market desired by their customers, and work directly with product and service providers versus using a distributor, will be amazingly successful at driving new sales and profits, and new store traffic according to Mr. Brand.


For additional information, contact Keith Brand, President Tefisto Partners, at 602.750.8055, or e-mail protected from spam bots. Interested parties should also visit www.tefistopartners.com.

About Tefisto Partners:
Tefisto Partners, based in Tempe, Arizona, is a consulting / outsourced category management practice made up of retail industry veterans who specialize in product development, marketing communications and supply chain management within the Prepaid Telecom / Financial Services / Stored Value space. Tefisto Partners works with large chain store retailers to bring new electronically delivered products and services to market, and maximizes retailer profitability by streamlining the supply chain and product delivery, while ensuring products and services are effectively marketed inside and outside the store.

CONTACT INFORMATION:
Keith Brand
President
Tefisto Partners, Inc.
602.750.8055
http://www.tefistopartners.com

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