ICC Worldwide Inc (fka ICCW)

[Cydonia]

ICC Worldwide Announces Growing Success With the Company's 'Wholesale-Only' Business Strategy

CORONA DEL MAR, Calif., Jan. 20, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ICC Worldwide, Inc. (Pink Sheets:ICCW) today announced that the company's transition to a "wholesale-only" strategy was beginning to produce significant results. Following the sale of all the firm's remaining retail locations in the fourth calendar quarter of 2008, ICC has been focused on expanding its wholesale communications products business. ICC's target customers are the 30 million largely permanent immigrant workers currently residing in Western Europe.

ICC's President & CEO, Rich Lauer stated, "Our customers are the local call shops and internet cafes who cater specifically to the immigrant workers. In Italy alone, there are more than 2,500 of these ethnically specialized businesses. Our initial focus has been on the Northern provinces of Italy. In this area we currently have a customer list which includes 165 shops. Each of these sites has an ICC VoIP router installed and has been trained on the use of our network. Every day new shops are being added. In addition to our advanced and cost-effective VoIP calling services, we also provide these shops with the ability to resell prepaid mobile phone traffic. Virtually all immigrant workers in Europe have mobile phones and use them with prepaid calling plans. Our advanced web-based technology allows ICC to deliver these products cost effectively with no need for the retailer to stock traditional prepaid cards for this service. This represents a huge advantage to the call shop operator."

Lauer went on to say, "When compared with December, our January per-day gross margin on VoIP products has already doubled. Furthermore, our mobile phone recharge business is showing even greater gains. The immigrant worker market in Europe is extremely large. And thanks to a vast network of existing call shops, it is quite accessible to ICC. As a result, we are in a position to continue adding new shops in Italy, and soon in other European countries, on an indefinite basis."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28749457/