Systemax Announces Appointment of Klaus Werner as Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer

PORT WASHINGTON, NY / ACCESSWIRE / March 2, 2020 / Systemax Inc. (NYSE:SYX), today announced the appointment of Klaus Werner as Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer, effective immediately. In this newly created position, Mr. Werner will oversee the company's marketing initiatives including strategy, planning and execution.

Barry Litwin, Chief Executive Officer of Systemax, said, "Klaus is a proven senior executive with a unique blend of marketing, e-commerce, technology, data, and enterprise analytics expertise. He has guided large omni-channel organizations through change, growth, and digital transformation. This skill set makes Klaus an ideal leader to drive our marketing program, growth initiatives and customer centric strategy."

Klaus Werner, said, "With a strong customer focus and an exceptional platform, Systemax is well positioned to enhance its long-term competitive position and deliver future growth. I'm excited to join the team and help accelerate our customer focused strategy."

Mr. Werner has served in leadership roles for a number of the world's most respected brands. He most recently served as the Chief Digital Officer for HD Supply. Previous roles include Chief Information Officer, Chief Digital Officer, Head of eCommerce, and Head of Marketing for companies such as Alex Lee, Rosetta, Lowe's and Bellsouth. Klaus graduated from Florida Atlantic University with a BS degree, and a MS in Quality Management and Technology from Nova Southeastern University.

About Systemax Inc.

Systemax Inc. (www.systemax.com), through its operating subsidiaries, is a value added distributor of industrial products in North America going to market through a system of branded e-Commerce websites and relationship marketers. The primary brand is Global Industrial.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward looking statements within the meaning of that term in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934). Additional written or oral forward-looking statements may be made by the Company from time to time in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission or otherwise. Any such statements that are not historical facts are forward looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and are based on management's estimates, assumptions and projections and are not guarantees of future performance. Forward-looking statements may include, but are not limited to statements regarding: i) projections or estimates of revenue, income or loss, exit costs, cash flow needs and capital expenditures; ii) fluctuations in general economic conditions; iii) future operations, such as, plans relating to new distribution facilities, plans for utilizing alternative sources of supply in response to government tariffs and trade actions, and plans for new products or services; iv) plans for acquisition or sale of businesses, including expansion or restructuring plans, such as our exit from and winding down of our North American Technology Group ("NATG") and European operations; v) financing needs, and compliance with financial covenants in loan agreements; vi) assessments of materiality; vii) predictions of future events and the effects of pending and possible litigation; and viii) assumptions relating to the foregoing. In addition, when used in this release, the words "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "expects," "intends," and "plans" and variations thereof and similar expressions are intended to identify forward looking statements.

Other factors that may affect our future results of operations and financial condition include, but are not limited to, unanticipated developments in any one or more of the following areas, as well as other factors which may be detailed from time to time in our Securities and Exchange Commission filings: general economic conditions, such as customer inventory levels, interest rates, borrowing ability and economic conditions in the manufacturing industry generally, will continue to impact our business; the imposition of tariffs and other trade barriers, as well as retaliatory trade measures, have caused us to raise the prices on certain of our products and seek alternate sources of supply, which could negatively impact our sales or disrupt our operations in the future; increases in freight and shipping costs have from time to time impacted our margins to the extent the increases could not be passed along to customers in a timely manner and may impact our margins again in the future, and factors affecting the shipping and distribution of products imported to the United States by us or our domestic vendors, such as global availability of shipping containers and fuel costs; our reliance on common carrier delivery services for shipping inventoried merchandise to customers; our reliance on drop ship deliveries directly to customers by our product vendors for products we do not hold in inventory; delays in the timely availability of products from our suppliers could delay receipt of needed product and result in lost sales; in this regard, global supply chains and the timely availability of products, particularly products, or product components used in domestic manufacturing, imported from China and other Asian nations (such as a significant portion of our private label products) could be adversely affected by quarantines, factory slowdowns or shut downs, border closings and travel restrictions resulting from the coronavirus outbreak in China; our ability to maintain available capacity in our distribution operations for stocked inventory and to enable on time shipment and deliveries, such as by timely implementing additional temporary or permanent distribution resources, whether in the form of additional facilities we operate or by outsourcing certain functions to third party distribution and logistics partners; we compete with other companies for recruiting, training, integrating and retaining talented and experienced employees, particularly in markets where we and they have central distribution facilities; this aspect of competition is aggravated by the current tight labor market in the U.S.; risks involved with e-commerce, including possible loss of business and customer dissatisfaction if outages or other computer-related problems should preclude customer access to our products and services; our information systems and other technology platforms supporting our sales, procurement and other operations are critical to our operations and disruptions or delays have occurred and could occur in the future, and if not timely addressed could have a material adverse effect on us; a data security breach due to our e-commerce, data storage or other information systems being hacked by those seeking to steal Company, vendor, employee or customer information, or due to employee error, resulting in disruption to our operations, litigation and/or loss of reputation or business; managing various inventory risks, such as being unable to profitably resell excess or obsolete inventory and/or the loss of product return rights from our vendors; meeting credit card industry compliance standards in order to maintain our ability to accept credit cards; rising interest rates, increased borrowing costs or limited credit availability, including our own ability to maintain satisfactory credit agreements and to renew credit facilities, could impact both our and our customers' ability to fund purchases and conduct operations in the ordinary course; pending or threatened litigation and investigations, as well as anti-dumping and other government trade and customs proceedings, could adversely affect our business and results of operations; sales tax laws or government enforcement priorities may be changed which could result in e-commerce and direct mail retailers having to collect sales taxes in states where the current laws and/or prior interpretations do not require us to do so; and extreme weather conditions could disrupt our product supply chain and our ability to ship or receive products, which would adversely impact sales.

Investor/Media Contacts:

Mike Smargiassi
The Plunkett Group
212-739-6740
mike@theplunkettgroup.com

SOURCE: Systemax Inc.

ReleaseID: 578435