14 November 2007

Waitrose customers can now locate their nearest branch, with Multimap's latest API service

Multimap, one of the world's leading online mapping and location-based services providers, today announced the implementation of its API service for Waitrose, a leading UK supermarket, and part of the John Lewis Partnership. Waitrose customers are now able to find their nearest branch with ease, and identify its exact location on an interactive map.

Fiona Hall, Marketing Manager, at Waitrose E-Commerce, commented, "We are pleased to work with Multimap to provide our customers with an improved online user experience. The service helps them find the precise location of our branches, together with other useful information."

Visitors to www.waitrose.com can simply click on the 'branch finder' option, and enter their postcode or place name. Multimap then delivers a draggable map with zoom in/out functionality, marking the exact location of the five nearest branches, together with other relevant information. The user can click on one of the markers to display an info box containing a link to store details such as opening times and products specific to a branch.

Nick Reeve, Senior Account Manager at Multimap, commented, "We are proud to partner with Waitrose, a household name in Britain, in helping to provide not just quality mapping but a location service that is rich in functionality, and which can offer a complete overview of the branch details in a one-stop operation. These additions have the added benefit of encouraging more use of the site and increasing footfall into the branches."

About Multimap

Multimap is one of the world's leading providers of mapping and location-based services. The company delivers more online maps, point-to-point driving directions and geo-spatial ("where's my nearest?") searches to more companies than any other supplier in Europe. All services are offered on mobile, PDA, kiosk, and interactive TV platforms. We also offer a highly-functional API (Application Programming Interface).

The public website, www.multimap.com, provides a range of free, useful services to assist with everyday life. Key features include street-level maps of Europe, USA, Canada, New Zealand and Australia; road maps of the world; door-to-door travel directions; aerial photographs; links to location information; and services such as hotel, restaurant and entertainment booking. The public site attracts over 10 million unique users, registers more than 190 million page impressions every month, and is one of the top 10 most visited websites in the UK.

Multimap recently featured in The Sunday Times Virgin Atlantic Fast Track 100 league table of fastest-growing unquoted UK companies across all sectors. In 2006, Queen Elizabeth II awarded Multimap The Queen's Award for Enterprise in the innovation category, and Multimap was one of only three companies to feature in the Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track 100 league of fastest-growing unquoted UK technology companies for the fourth year running. Also in 2006, the company featured in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 for the UK and Ireland, and the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 for EMEA. Multimap also featured in the Deloitte Touche's Technology Fast 50 league for London and Southern England in 2005 and, in the same year, Red Herring named Multimap as one of the Top 100 private companies in Europe.

About Waitrose

Waitrose supermarkets, part of the John Lewis Partnership, have 186 shops across the UK. The Waitrose website www.waitrose.com relaunched in July 2007 and features improved local branch information including products available in each shop, an archive of over 4,500 recipes and 2,500 food articles and an online forum for customers to swap recipe ideas and join in food debates.