News
arvato digital services to cooperate with UNIVERSAL MUSIC
Full service for music fans
Berlin, Gütersloh, February 1, 2010 – They are part of the scene at concerts and festivals, just as team shirts are ubiquitous at major sporting events: t-shirts with the tour dates of well-known bands, baseball caps and tote bags emblazoned with band logos. One of the leading suppliers of merchandise for music fans – whether they prefer rock, pop, classical, jazz, German-language pop or folk music – is the Berlin-based company Deutschrock Merchandising GmbH (Deutschrock). arvato digital services has reached an agreement with Deutschrock regarding extensive cooperation in the promising merchandising market.
Deutschrock was founded in the early 1990s by the German band “Die Ärzte,” and since 2007 a majority of its shares have been held by UNIVERSAL MUSIC. Deutschrock has become a market leader in fan merchandise and advertising materials for the music sector. Under the new cooperation agreement, arvato digital services will provide a wide variety of services for Deutschrock, ranging from product manufacturing to warehousing, from order picking to shipment to end customers, as well as end-customer management.
This new arrangement is part of a consistent expansion by arvato digital services of its own service business. “Over the past few years, we have established ourselves as a competent, flexible provider of services and logistics solutions for the entertainment industry. We have consistently adapted our service portfolio to respond to changes in the market," noted Sven Deutschmann, CEO of arvato digital services Manufacturing EMEA. He added, “In the entertainment sector, merchandise and direct sales to end customers are playing an increasingly important role. Accordingly, we have been investing in this market and further expanding the range of services we provide to our customers. The new cooperation agreement allows us to demonstrate our competence in this area.”
Tonio Bogdanski, CFO of UNIVERSAL MUSIC Germany, is also looking forward to working with arvato: “We have been looking for a reliable and competent service provider to offer professional support for our existing merchandising business, while working with us to further expand that business. We have found this partner in arvato digital services.”
About arvato digital services
arvato digital services, a subsidiary of the media and communications service provider arvato, offers its business partners in the IT/high-tech, games, video and audio industries a comprehensive range of services and solutions. Eight thousand employees all over the world provide the highest quality service to arvato’s customers – and this began exactly 50 years ago. The global presence of arvato digital services covers 18 countries and five continents.
arvato digital services is a market leader in the area of integrated solutions encompassing every aspect of the value chain – from post-production, replication and fulfillment to distribution/supply-chain management and financial services, as well as electronic software distribution. These processes are supported by end-to-end IT systems. With these solutions, arvato digital services is able to create added value for its customers and ensure that they are well equipped to meet the challenges of the market.
About Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group is the world’s leading music company, with its own record labels as well as licensees in 77 countries. Universal Music Publishing Group, the global leader in music publishing, is also part of this company.
Labels belonging to Universal Music Group include A&M, Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Interscope Geffen A&M Records, Island Def Jam Music Group, Mercury Records, Philips, Polydor Records, Motown and Verve, as well as numerous labels belonging to or distributed by UMG subsidiaries all over the world. Universal Music Group owns the most extensive catalogue of music in the industry, including the world’s most popular artists and recordings from the past 100 years. The UMG catalogue is marketed by two separate divisions: Universal Music Enterprises (in the United States) and Universal Strategic Marketing (outside the US). Universal Music Group also includes eLabs, a new media and technologies division; Bravado, a merchandising company; Twenty-First Artists, its full-service management division; and Helter Skelter, a live-music agency.
Universal Music Group is a unit of Vivendi Universal, a global media and communications company.
Press contact:
arvato AG
Public Relations
Telephone: +49 (5241) 80 3408
E-mail: arvato-pr@bertelsmann.de
Universal Music Entertainment GmbH
Corporate Communications
Telephone: +49 (0) 30 52007 01
E-mail: Germany.Communications@umusic.com
