Airborne Express Delivers Cheques to Households

SEATTLE, Oct. 2 /PRNewswire/ — Airborne Express (NYSE: ABF)
(http://www.airborne.com), today announced that Clarke American Checks, Inc., one of
the largest check printers in the United States, has selected airborne@home,
the carrier’s low-cost, business-to-residential delivery service, for a
substantial portion of its 55 million annual bank check and share draft
orders. Shipments can be tracked from the factory loading dock to the
destination delivery unit through Airborne’s state-of-the-art tracking system,
and ultimately to the consumer’s mailbox through the U.S. Postal Service’s
delivery confirmation service.
Clarke American, a subsidiary of Novar PLC (OTC BBN: NVARY)
(http://www.clarkeamerican.com), prints checks for more than 4,500 financial
institutions. It is the endorsed check printer of 14 bank associations across
the nation.
“We produce more than 11 billion checks and share drafts every year for
our financial institution partners, and they demand both reliability and
security for these important documents,” said Charles Korbell, president and
CEO of Clarke American. “Airborne@home is not just a cost-effective option to
our standard U.S. mail delivery. This innovative new offering provides an
affordable delivery option with upgraded transit time and greater security.”
In fact, Korbell said, Clarke American is so confident in airborne@home’s
track record and service reliability, it offers the service to its partners
with a delivery guarantee. “The airborne@home service has consistently
outperformed our expectations, allowing a four-day delivery commitment after
production, at extremely competitive rates,” he said.
Customer response to the four-day service has been impressive. “Usage of
this exciting new delivery service has increased about 212 percent in the
three months since it has been available,” said Rita Wenthold, the company’s
category manager for delivery.
For more than 50 years, Airborne and its subsidiaries have served the
shipping needs of business customers around the world. Today, Airborne offers
total distribution solutions by providing time-sensitive delivery of
documents, letters, small packages, and freight to virtually every U.S. ZIP
code and more than 200 countries. Customers can select from a variety of
services including same-day, next-morning, 10:30 a.m., next-afternoon,
second-day, ground delivery service, international air express and freight,
ocean service, and logistics management.

Clarke American Checks, Inc. is one of the largest security printers of
financial institution checks and forms in the United States. The company has
more than 3,500 associates and a national network of electronically linked
production facilities and customer service centers throughout the country.
Clarke American was honored by the Quality Texas Foundation as the sole
recipient of the 2001 Texas Award for Performance Excellence. Fourteen bank
associations across the nation endorse Clarke American as their official check
printer, and the company has been the nationally endorsed vendor for the
Credit Union National Association for over 25 years. For more information
about Clarke American, visit http://www.clarkeamerican.com.