Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

Despite the startling fact that TrekStor's MP3s outsell Apple iPods in Germany and its intention to become the third biggest UK MP3 supplier just seven months after an anticipated May launch, the firm has set up a Cambridge R & D facility to prepare for an MP3 market increasingly dominated by mobile phones.

"The whole MP3 market is slowing down," said TrekStor chief executive, Shimon Szmigiel. "There has been little innovation in MP3s over the last couple of years and we are not fully focused on them, it's an exchangeable market. The innovation focus is now based on different mobile solutions."

The Cambridge-based team of four audio and video, software and hardware engineers is leading the development of TrekStor's new multimedia devices for the world market, confidential work Szmigiel says will accelerate as the workforce doubles over the next nine months.

TrekStor has further engineering resources at its headquarters in Lorsch, South Hessia, and China. It established the TrekStor UK subsidiary in September 2007 to drive both innovation and UK sales, which is handled from a second office in Surrey.

This sales and marketing base will be used to launch UK sales of TrekStor external hard drives and MP3s. Though the company barely has a presence in the UK, Szmigiel believes it can take a 3 to 4 per cent market share, selling 300,000 units - 70 per cent hard drives, 30 per cent MP3s and generating £15 million by the end of the year.

The company is among the leading brands for MP3 players, external hard drives and USB flash drives in Germany as well as other countries such as Austria, Poland, Italy, Spain, Turkey and to a lesser extent, the US. Its products are designed by its own development team and most are produced in Germany.

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