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Demand triggers GPI expansion
Thanks to increased demand from the burgeoning market in Macau, Gaming Partners International has announced its French subsidiary, GPI SAS, has made both larger and sooner-than-expected expansion plans to accommodate the high demand for its gaming chips, particularly low- and high-frequency RFID chips.
GPI recently announced that it entered into a real estate purchase contract for an existing, two-story building in Beaune, France located near GPI SAS’s existing facility. The purchase is scheduled to close by the end of June 2006, subject to standard closing conditions. The purchase price is 650,000 euros (approximately US $827,840 as of June 1, 2006). The building will serve as the administrative and sales headquarters and non-gaming chip production facility for GPI’s operations outside the US, resulting in additional space for gaming chip production at GPI’s existing facility in Beaune, France. GPI SAS is also getting ready to receive several additional and sophisticated pieces of equipment in order to properly serve the needs of their Macau customers. The new space allows GPI to increase its gaming chip production capacity without any significant interference with ongoing production and business operations. Sales of RFID gaming chips and readers are definitely on the rise on a worldwide basis, and are expected to keep growing in coming years. GPI SAS has ramped up its production facilities and number of employees in order to meet the increased demands from the Macau casinos, both in the volume of orders and in the delivery time requirements. GPI SAS has increased its workforce by nearly 40% since 2005. Gerard P. Charlier, President and CEO said: “Based on our strong backlog at year end, we had already started to expand our production capacities in France, the US and Mexico. In France, the increase in production capacity and space has to be achieved faster than originally planned due to the soaring demand for our well-known and widely accepted gaming chips, jetons and plaques both without RFID and with RFID. The Macau casinos prefer the quality, experience and proven
