History (1993): Final Agreement Between Iomega and Nomai

During the month of July, Nomai (Avranches, France) signed a distribution agreement with Iomega (Roy, UT) that gives the US company the exclusive distribution rights of SyQuest-compatible 44 and 88MB cartridges, throughout the world, except France where both partners will sell the products.

This agreement was subject to several test phases to verify the quality of the cartridges. This made Nomai improve its cartridges and use better quality magnetic platters bought from IBM in Mainz, Germany.

The financial conditions of this agreement were not disclosed.

According to Hervé Frouin, GM of Nomai, his company has the guarantee of a certain amount of sales and Iomega will not be allowed to manufacture cartridges.

To increase its production, Nomai plans to acquire two extra servo-writers.

“Our production capacity will reach 60,000 cartridges per month in the last quarter of 93,” said Frouin.

He adds that his company reported FF15 million sales in the first six months of 93 and expects FF35 million for the second half.

Nomai is also working for the European Esprit project on a drive accepting a 3.5-inch cartridge with 400MB on one single platter, and using MR heads or planear heads supplied by Silmag.

This article is an abstract of news published on the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter on issue 66, published on July 1993.