Arete Industries Inc. Announces Joint Venture With SourceOne Worldwide.

BOULDER, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 26, 1999--

New Venture to Generate Minimum of $3 Million in First Year;

Company to Expand Into Direct Marketing and E-commerce

Arete Industries Inc. (OTC:AREE) has launched a joint venture with SourceOne Worldwide LLC of Denver to locate a new, full-service, state-of-the-art commercial printing and direct-mail company in SourceOne's 145,000-square-foot facility, located along Denver's I-70 corridor.

SourceOne is a provider of comprehensive marketing services, including print, mail, fulfillment, customer service and database management, to Fortune 1000 companies.

The new company will be financed and initially wholly owned by Arete Industries to service the combined printing needs of SourceOne and the company's wholly owned subsidiary, Global Direct Marketing Services Inc., and it will sell commercial print and mail services on a local, regional and nationwide basis.

The plan is to purchase up to $4 million of high-tech digital prepress, printing and binding equipment and begin operations that will generate a minimum of $3 million in revenue within the first 12 months from completion of funding and installation of the equipment.

There will be a transition period of approximately three to six months to purchase and install the new equipment, during which the new company will outsource to SourceOne's current printing and mail facilities. As presently designed, the new company will have a total capacity of $15 million per year based on three shifts per day.

As a result of the joint venture, Global Direct will focus entirely on direct marketing services and programs offering the complete spectrum of services from print and direct mail to database marketing and management, to electronic (e-commerce) and Web-based systems now available to the company through SourceOne.

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Thomas Raabe stated: "This agreement is the perfect solution to end operating losses in Council Bluffs and immediately generate higher revenues by leveraging our national network of franchisees and licensees beyond co-op coupon direct-mail advertising into larger, higher-revenue market segments.

"Execution of this joint venture will transform our company from a submarginal, undercapitalized turnaround project to a high-growth company focused on providing state-of-the-art, high-margin, value- added direct marketing services to the entire population of small-business entrepreneurs."

SourceOne will turnkey the new company with administrative and accounting systems, and it will open with a full complement of staff and management transferred from SourceOne, including Senior Operations Officer Les Caldwell, who has more than 35 years of operations and sales experience in commercial printing and direct mail with many of the principal companies in the Denver area.

Safe-harbor statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: The statements contained herein that are not historical are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements, including but not limited to certain delays beyond the company's control with respect to market acceptance of new technologies or products, delays in testing and evaluation of products, and other risks detailed from time to time in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.