N Brown Group plc, the UK-based direct home shopping company, has announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership with GE Capital to develop Zendor.com

N Brown Group plc, the UK-based direct home shopping company, has announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership with GE Capital to develop Zendor.com, an e-commerce fulfilment service for home shopping businesses in the UK. As part of the agreement, GE Capital’s international consumer financial services subsidiary, GE Capital Global Consumer Finance, will assist in managing the business. The partnership adds further significant capabilities to Zendor.com ‘s fulfilment strengths. GE Capital’s experience in global consumer credit, linked with Zendor.com’s fulfilment services, now provides a complete solution for Zendor.com’s retail and end consumer clients, from on- and off-line credit facilities through to order processing on a large scale.
The main features of the partnership are:
 GE Capital will market the enhanced Zendor.com service to its existing and future retailer clients in the UK.
 N Brown will benefit from GE’s worldwide process, quality and customer relationship programmes, as well as leveraging GE’s purchasing power to further reduce costs.
 GE Capital’s involvement increases the business base and potential revenues of Zendor.com such that it enhances N Brown’s expected benefits, both commercially and operationally, from the venture.
 GE Capital receives 25% of the equity of Zendor.com in recognition of the enhanced infrastructure it adds to the business.
 As part of the venture, N Brown will benefit from 25% of the Zendor.com-generated credit card profits.

 Profits of the Zendor.com business will be shared 75%/2S% between N Brown and GE Capital respectively.
 As well as the infrastructure enhancements that GE Capital brings to Zendor.com with its participation in the partnership, it will pay an additional cash consideration of up to £6.6m to N Brown.
 N Brown and GE Capital will work together to explore and invest in the further exploitation of opportunities in the areas of e-commerce, logistics and information sharing in the UK development, on a global basis and the leverage of customer information.
Stuart Sinclair, Chief Executive of GE Capital Global Consumer Finance, said: “We are pleased to become a partner of N Brown. This step allows us to continue to grow our e-commerce capability and will enable us to service more fully new e-tailers as well as established retailers seeking to participate in e-commerce
Commenting on this partnership, Jim Martin, Chief Executive of N Brown said: “GE Capital’s leading position and reputation in the credit market will add both depth and further scope to the Zendor.com proposition, while introducing it to a wider audience. Their considerable skills in credit, information, logistics, and customer management, along with the benefits of scale will help N Brown’s core home shopping business and Zendor.com to accelerate the realisation of their various strategies”.
N Brown announced Zendor.com at its interim results last October. The service offers fulfilment, providing everything from assistance with product sourcing; warehousing; provision of call centre services; customer care and accounts support; web site preparation to home delivery, collection and processing of returns. It recently announced a marketing partnership with AHL Services, Inc to handle fulfilment services for AHL clients operating in the UK.