Dear friends, colleagues, customers!

We are at the 10th anniversary of Marylock.

We shall not celebrate this date although it is important event for any brand. For us too. Our team has made the strongest die-making company in Russia and today leads the industry setting standards of service and product quality. Since September 2008 those achievements are being regularly nullified — due to the many factors. First, our government set the course to the maximum devaluation of the national currency, Rouble, to support the exporters. This also means fatal downgrade to the importers and manufacturers. The materials we use in the die production are mainly purchased from the U.S. Magnesium Elektron and the price for those materials jumped 40% in 2 months due to the Dollar/Rouble exchange rate only. Second, all world metal prices went down long ago — the demand is going down all 2008 through. Except MEL's magnesium, copper and brass sheets. Magnesium Elektron together with it's Russian partner Bronko raised the prices in 2009. Now that overall materials pricing jump makes fantastic 120% during 4 last months. This takes place when the sales itself significantly decrease and the companies like us are set to death by the action of that sort. Meeting with the British MEL representatives responsible for Europe and Russia gave no result — we heard no answer why MEL copper sheets became 100% more expensive when the London Metal Exchange copper prices went 100% down. In private we were said that the materials would better be frozen on the shelf than sold us cheaper. The meeting of ATG (Assotsiatsia Tisnenia & Gravirovki) is planned for Wednesday, 4 February, and the agenda of the competitors' talks is the step-by-step finishing with the overpriced imported materials and create a local materials base for the future work. Samples are already on the desk and we come to the next stage. This would certainly require some time — and some money. So I have been thinking days and nights what else I could do to save the production of our company in 2009 when the sales fall down? Loans? Investors? Partners? My CEO task is our company's survival during the hard time and I would appreciate any ideas.

Yours, Andrey Somov Marylock