Mats Jansson new CEO and President of the "New Food Company"

Mats Jansson new CEO and President of the "New Food Company" The Boards of Directors of Hemköp and the "New Food Company" have chosen Mats Jansson as CEO and President of the "New Food Company", established through the combination of Hemköp and D&D Dagligvaror. Mr. Jansson will assume office as of 15 March 2000. Mats Jansson is 48 years old and was previously CEO and President of Oy Karl Fazer AB. Prior to the office at Fazer, Mr. Jansson was CEO for the listed company Bilia for four and a half years. Prior to that he worked within the ICA Group for approximately 20 years, most recently as CEO for ICA Retail and Deputy President. The combination of Hemköp and D&D Dagligvaror is carried out by an offer to D&D's shareholders to exchange their shares in D&D for shares in Hemköp. Hemköp will change name. The new group will also include Spar Sverige and Spar Inn Snabbgross as well as the majority of the listed company Spar Finland. The "New Food Company" will be a large, listed food wholesale and retail group in the Nordic region with a market share of approximately 20 percent in Sweden and approximately 10 percent in Finland. Net sales amount to approximately 30 bn SEK and the number of employees amount to approximately 7,000. The present CEO of Hemköp, Håkan Matz, will continue as CEO of the operating subsidiary Hemköp, which will operate with head offices in Falun, Sweden. The present CEO of D&D, Lars Otterbeck, will continue as CEO of the operating subsidiary D&D, which will operate with head offices in Solna, Sweden. - Mats Jansson will contribute to the "New Food Company" as an experienced CEO with proven leadership capabilities, which will be a valuable asset for the new group in a time of structural changes, says Göran Ennerfelt, Chairman of the "New Food Company". Mr. Jansson has a solid track record as a manager, both in private and listed companies and he has sound knowledge of the food wholesale and retail industry. - It will be a stimulating challenge to manage the "New Food Company". The new structure will be a stable platform for an aggressive expansion in the Nordic and the Baltic regions, says Mr. Jansson. For questions please contact: Göran Ennerfelt, Tel: +46-8-701 61 00 CEO and President, Axel Johnson AB and Mobile: +46-70-598 61 08 Chairman of the "New Food Company" Mats Jansson Tel: +46-8-470 73 50 New CEO and President of the "New Food Company" Mobile: +358-40-500 10 40 Appendix: Fact sheet Fact Sheet The Extraordinary General Meeting of Hemköpskedjan AB, held on 10 February 2000, approved the amendment of the Articles of Association and the Board of Directors' resolution to issue new shares. Furthermore, the new members of the Board of Directors of the "New Food Company" were elected and will assume office upon the implementation of the combination of Hemköp and D&D. Hereby, one of Hemköp's four conditions of the public offer to D&D Daglivaror AB's shareholders is fulfilled. The other conditions include the approval of the required resolutions by D&D's General Meeting on 17 February and that Hemköp's offer is accepted by D&D's shareholders representing at least 90 percent of the shares. The subscription period expires on 25 February. The fourth condition is the approval by the authorities concerned. Axel Johnson AB will own approximately 47 percent of the "New Food Company" and the associated retailers will own approximately 25 percent. The New Food Company includes: Hemköp reported sales of 5.3 bn SEK in 1999 and earnings after net financial items of 162.8 MSEK. Hemköp owns 100 food retail stores across Sweden and has approximately 2,700 full-time employees. D&D Dagligvaror reported preliminary sales of approximately 19 bn SEK in 1999 and earnings after net financial items of 106 MSEK. D&D's earnings are negatively affected by structural costs amounting to approximately 80 MSEK due to the "merger" of D-gruppen and Dagab. D&D has approximately 3,000 full-time employees. The wholly owned and associated stores number approximately 900. In 1999, total retail sales amounted to 26.5 bn SEK including VAT. SPAR Sverige, with 17 SPAR-stores in the middle of Sweden, reported preliminary sales of approximately 1.3 bn SEK in 1999. The stores were converted to the international SPAR-concept in 1999, which implied significant costs. Earnings after net financial items amounted to 0 SEK. Structural costs of approximately 17 MSEK affected the result negatively. Spar Inn Snabbgross, with 24 stores across the country, reported sales of approximately 1.4 bn SEK in 1999 and earnings after net financial items of approximately 11 MSEK. Spar Inn Snabbgross' earnings are also affected negatively by significant structural costs related to the start-up of majority-owned e-trade operations. Combined, SPAR Sverige and Spar Inn Snabbgross have approximately 765 full-time employees. Spar Finland reported preliminary sales of 614.4 MEUR in 1999 (approximately 5.5 bn SEK) and earnings after net financial items of 1.4 MEUR (approximately 12.5 MSEK). The number of full-time employees amounts to approximately 930. The wholly owned stores number 332, which together reported sales of approximately 907 MEUR including VAT (approximately 8 bn SEK). ------------------------------------------------------------ Please visit http://www.bit.se for further information The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/02/11/20000211BIT00030/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/02/11/20000211BIT00030/bit0002.pdf