Oxford Limited, the licensor for the University of Oxford, has taken the licence into Eastern Europe for the first time.

The company has signed back to school and stationery deals with Polish firm St Majewski and Romanian outfit SC Pigna. The agreements were brokered by Performance Brands, Oxford's agents for the UK and Europe.

Also known as Unipap, St Majewski has strong relationships with key retailers in Poland and will develop a line of stationery such as pencil cases, notebooks, folders, organisers and bags to sell through these channels. SC Pigna holds a 70 per cent market share of the Back to School market in Romania and, like St Majewski, has a good track record with licensed brands.  Its Oxford range will encompass backpacks and messenger style bags through to water bottles and stationery sets.

"Education is the University's core competence and back-to-school is a key area of relevance and focus for Oxford's brand licensing programme," commented Chris Evans, MD of Oxford Limited. "Both St Majewski and SC Pigna already produce high quality licensed ranges and can demonstrate strong retail relationships in their home territories, which fit with our strategy and positioning of the Oxford brand."

Eve Hutson, manager for the back-to-school category at Performance Brands added, "It's great to be working with two such dynamic and capable companies who are very strong in their respective markets.  We are planning to roll out back-to-school in territories across Europe and also look forward to the launch of these two ranges in Eastern Europe from summer 2012."

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