US Tire & Exhaust

JANCO INTERNATIONAL ADOPTS CARPARTS TECHNOLOGIES' WEB SERVICES FOR PARTS AND TIRE ONLINE ORDERING

Janco International to Develop Purchasing Workflow to Automate $200 Million in Annual Orders to Distributors

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Calif. – August 2, 2004 -- CarParts Technologies Inc. (CPT), the leading provider of open, eCommerce software solutions for the automotive aftermarket, today announced that it has signed a partnership agreement with Janco International of Traverse City, Michigan.

As CPT has enabled eCommerce among manufacturers, distributors and service chains in the North American automotive aftermarket, the company has also identified several key technology partners who can enable integrated eCommerce that will revolutionize the demand chain.

"While CarParts Technologies' VAST Point-of-Sale (POS) is the unquestionable best choice in our larger multi-store tire and service chains and with franchise customers, we have found that Janco Enterprise has a complementary customer base in single location aftermarket undercar service outlets," said Randy Groh, vice president of marketing at U.S. Tire & Exhaust®, a major distributor in the Midwest market. "U.S. Tire & Exhaust® wants to offer our buyers that use Janco software the same ease of use in generating electronic ordering that our VAST customers enjoy today. We are delighted that Janco has chosen to adopt CarParts Technologies' XML design for restocking, hot shot and special order Web Services."

The OpenWebs™ eCommerce Server is a Microsoft .NET Web platform for aftermarket parts and tire distributors. OpenWebs offers distributors a single integrated platform for both browser ordering and system-to-system communication via a set of "messages" between the buyer POS and the supplier system. Such messages – hot shot orders, queries on inventory price and availability, restocking orders – are CPT value-added extensions of the industry standard OAGIS XML specification developed by the Open Applications Group (OAG). OAG is a non-profit consortium -representing leading manufacturers and independent software vendors.

"Janco International is responding to our key customers who need online access to their suppliers from within their POS system," said Jan White, president of Janco International. "It is clear that our customers, representing 1,200 locations and an estimated $200 million in parts and tires purchases annually, and the distributors who fulfill them, view CarParts Technologies as one of the key Web Services providers in the aftermarket. We anticipate deploying online ordering integrated into Janco Enterprise POS based on CPT's specification by late Fall of 2004."