Lotto is opening a new flagship store in Milan situated at 16 Corso Buenos Aires – “Milan’s third most important shopping street.” This marks the latest milestone in the Company’s distribution strategy and forms part of the Italian sports brand’s broader opening plan. The company stated that the image of this new retail concept will guide the restyling of the existing stores as well as subsequent new openings.

The new store’s over 140 square metres of floor space house the Lotto collections’ world of sport, from pure performance sports (football, five-a-side football and tennis) to leisure activities, with a complete assortment when it comes to men’s, women’s and children’s footwear, clothing and accessories. Sports underwear, eyewear and cosmetics will also be introduced in the future.

At the store’s exterior, the three large, bright display windows start by creating a strong emotional impact in this one floor store, which comes across as a single large setting characterised by particularly effective ceiling lighting.

The store has a focus on shop fittings that reflect the brand’s typical bright colours – white, red and black – played on the footing of grey PVC flooring, raw brick walls, lacquered wood furniture, aluminium components and satin finish steel accessories, which all help give brightness and practicality to the store. The space is also dominated by numerous posters with the brand’s new style of communication, representing the main sports testimonials who are connected with Lotto: football players such as Shevchenko, Seedorf, Toni and Cafu; teams like Palermo; tennis players such as Dominik Hrbaty, Conchita Martinez and the ladies’ doubles players Ruano Pascual and Suarez.

The “Godfathers” of the official opening are AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti and bomber Andriy Shevchenko (who has been playing in Lotto boots since the year 2000), who will join the Company President, Andrea Tomat, in cutting the tape.

The new Milan store joins the 26 other Lotto flagship stores which are already open in Italy. The Company aims to increase the number of Lotto stores managed either directly or through third parties with the objective, on the one hand, to strengthen the Lotto image in markets where the brand exists already and has gained awareness, and on the other to secure high visibility in emerging markets.

The list of new openings planned in 2005 starts with Italy with one in Friuli and the other in the Mantua area. In Autumn, restyling operations and new stores are planned in China, India and Korea, to name just the main ones.

The Group’s 2004 results are also expected by the end of this month. According to advance information, consolidated sales of 256 million euro should be registered.