24 hours faster than Federal Express.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 21, 1997--Every year, more than 15 million blueprints from architects, engineers and contractors are rushed to their destinations via overnight delivery services like Federal Express.

Now Dietzgen Advanced Technology Services, a subsidiary of Weyerhaeuser family-owned Dietzgen Corp., is unveiling a new satellite-based distribution system for architectural and engineering drawings that will help ease deadline pressures by eliminating the overnight wait, providing guaranteed same-day delivery at next-day prices.

Dietzgen's new A/E/C Express service is expected to capture at least 30 percent of the estimated $500 million now spent annually for blueprint delivery with overnight couriers. With future expansion to other markets planned, it could make an even more significant dent in the bottom lines of Federal Express and its next-day competitors. It also represents another step in the ongoing transition from the traditional print-and-distribute model of document dissemination to the more efficient distribute-and-print strategy made possible by the digital age.

"We are building an infrastructure that will make it possible to serve a variety of niche markets with a need to exchange unusually formatted and time-critical documents," said Stephen Hata, A/E/C Express Vice President and General Manager. "For motion picture labs involved in shooting commercials, for example, we could transmit the dailies to the client's offices while the shoot is still in progress so that the crew will know whether to break up or stay on site. For law firms, we could move depositions and discovery documents. In the medical field, we could enable a remote hospital to move X-rays to specialists for analysis. Bits and bytes are bits and bytes regardless of the application; we're starting with construction data, but there are a lot of other opportunities out there."

"FedEx was a breakthrough 15 or 20 years ago, and I see A/E/C Express as being the next major development," said Chuck Gremillion, president of A&E Products Co., a Houston-based reprographer that has joined the new network. "Anything that will shorten the turnaround time it takes to get a customer's work to another city has the potential to build our business and serve our current customers better."

CONTACT: Michelle Darrow, 847/291-8421 Ext. 269