ACNielsen's Category Business Planner Rapidly Becoming Solution of Choice for Category Management; 15 Retailers, 13 Manufacturers Already Under Contract for New Product.

Business Editors

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 5, 2002

ACNielsen U.S., an operating unit of ACNielsen, a VNU company, today reported that, less than seven months after launching its new Category Business Planner (CBP), it has 15 retailers and 13 manufacturers under contract to use the category management intelligence system, with a total of over 600 users across those organizations. The retailers represent more than one-third of "all-commodity volume," which is the total sales from the universe of large grocery, drug and mass merchandise retailers tracked by ACNielsen.

ACNielsen provided an update on the growing use of its CPB product at the annual Food Marketing Institute Marketechnics conference here.

CBP fosters collaboration between retailers and manufacturers by providing easy access to category sales information organized according to each retailer's proprietary view of its categories, operating territory and competition. With a simple click of a mouse, a manufacturer can move from retailer to retailer to view the performance of its category exactly how each retailer views the category. It is the only such tool in the consumer packaged goods industry.

After accessing CBP via the Internet, users see news headlines that instantly assess the state of their business, reporting on metrics such as how many and which products are under-performing, where distribution opportunities exist, and which items are the top-sellers. Clicking on a headline reveals more details.

Mike Terpkosh, director of category management development at SUPERVALU, said, "Category Business Planner is driving efficiencies throughout our category management process. It has made what was once an enormous data mining task much easier by automating much of the analysis and putting mission-critical metrics at our category managers' fingertips."

Among the retailers using CBP are SUPERVALU, Meijer, Walgreens, Bruno's, Hannaford Bros., CVS, Eckerd, and Longs Drug Stores.

ACNielsen, a VNU company, is the world's leading marketing information company. Offering services in more than 100 countries, the company provides measurement and analysis of marketplace dynamics and consumer attitudes and behavior. Clients rely on ACNielsen's market research, proprietary products, analytical tools and professional service to understand competitive performance, to uncover new opportunities and to raise the profitability of their marketing and sales campaigns.

Note to Editors: Look for this press release and other ACNielsen news on the Internet at http://acnielsen.com/news. More information about Category Business Planner can be found at www.acnielsen.com/cbp.