Canadian Company Signs Agreement With Straightedge

Straightedge Plys The Silk Road To Over 4,000 Canadian Businesses

Major Canadian Company Signs Agreement With Straightedge Limited

Auckland, 14 August - Straightedge Limited (NZSE:SRE) today announced that Straightedge Division, its target acquisition, has signed a major agreement that opens the door to over 4,000 businesses in the North American market.

Darren Wallbank, the Chief Executive of Carter Holt Harvey's Straightedge Division, says the signing of a Heads of Agreement with the President of Silk Systems Inc., Adriano Botello, this week is hugely important for the accelerated growth of the Kiwi company into North America.

"This agreement with Silk Systems means that Straightedge now has access and instant scalability to thousands of major stores throughout North America. This is something that most New Zealand companies only dream about - for us it's a reality - here now,' says Wallbank.

"Through our excellent relationship with Silk Systems we have made the right contacts to enable trials and sales of our key software with key hardware branches in North America. Silk has the expertise and people who understand our business because they are from the same industry so it is a great fit for both companies," says Wallbank.

Wallbank says the Silk agreement means a high level of support and an active presence in North America that would not have been possible otherwise.

"Silk is appointing additional sales and support people to represent Straightedge. Importantly, this agreement will also provide customers using our Biz-e Builder and Virtual Worlds products with telephone support in both the U.S. and Canada. Silk has the infrastructure in place to support our business customers in both markets" says Wallbank.

Marc Potter, Chairman of Straightedge Limited says the agreement with Silk Systems is a tremendous achievement in establishing the Straightedge brand

"Silk has an exceptional reputation in the North American market as a leading provider of business solutions. The company has over 1000 installations of its proprietary ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software amongst retailers in the industrial goods and building products sectors. This represents significant scale and expertise in supporting software products across a broad geography and in mission-critical applications. They are an ideal partner for Straightedge for access to customers, credibility and scalability.

"Another positive aspect is that Silk's potential revenue under this agreement represents a savings in our planned outlays for market support. In addition, Straightedge is discussing a complementary agreement to represent Silk in Asia and Australasia. Our products naturally link for our retail customers - point of sale through to back-end processes - and this has the potential to further leverage our own sales force in our home geographies.

"This agreement is a seal of approval that opens the door to 4,400 hardware stores across Canada and the U.S. It also provides the mechanism to support the numerous trials recently negotiated by Straightedge in North America, and the anticipated rapid growth in commercial installations leading into the northern summer says Potter.

Members of the public have an opportunity to buy shares in Straightedge at $0.50 cents with the minimum parcel being 2,000 shares. The offer of shares closes on Friday, 16 August. Application forms are available from any member of the NZSE, organising broker Forsyth Barr Limited by calling 0800 376 227, or can be downloaded (along with the prospectus) from the company's website at www.ncm.co.nz/news/straightedge

ENDS

For further information please contact:

Marc Potter, Chairman, Straightedge Limited, Mobile (025) 433 867

Tony Dowd, Director, Straightedge Limited, Mobile (021) 386 863

Darren Wallbank, Chief Executive, Straightedge Division, Mobile (0274) 830 704

About Silk Systems

Silk Systems Inc. has been providing its fully integrated business management information system to companies in various industries since 1988. With a client base of over 1,000, Silk is one of the leading North American business solution providers.

The Silk system is platform independent and is available for Linux, SCO UNIX, and Windows operating systems.

Silk prides themselves on the comprehensiveness and versatility of its software systems providing solutions to a wide range of types and sizes of businesses. Their modularized software design makes it easy for businesses to choose only the product that is appropriate for their particular requirements.

For more information please visit www.silksystems.com

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