ACNielsen Announces Newest Category Business Planner Client: Longs Drug Stores; Client Signings Continue At Rapid Pace.

Business Editors

SCHAUMBURG, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 31, 2002

ACNielsen U.S., an operating unit of ACNielsen, a VNU company, today announced the addition of Longs Drug Stores Corporation (NYSE: LDG) to the fast-growing list of retailers who have signed on to use Category Business Planner (CBP), ACNielsen's innovative, Web-based category management intelligence system.

Category Business Planner fosters greatly enhanced collaboration between retailers and manufacturers by providing both parties with sales information based on each retailer's unique category definitions. Manufacturers can easily click from one retailer to another and see the performance of their categories through each retailer's perspective in terms of category definition, where the retailer does business, and its competition. It is the only such tool available to the consumer packaged goods industry.

Mike Deimling, Longs' director of category managers, said, "Category Business Planner is a real breakthrough in the evolution of category management. It enables us to fast-forward through the time-consuming drill of sorting through the differences between our information and our manufacturer partners' information and get to decision-making much more quickly. We are very excited about the potential this tool has to drive efficiency through our category management process."

After logging on to Category Business Planner through the Internet, users see "headlines" about key sales metrics that are critical to their business. Clicking on a headline provides more details.

Dan Sacco, senior vice president of Retail Services and Sales Development for ACNielsen, said, "Longs has a more than 60-year history of excellence in drug retailing. We are very pleased that such a notable retailer has decided to join the CBP team. We continue to be very gratified at the speed of acceptance this new tool is enjoying in the marketplace."

Longs operates 436 stores in six western states. Other retailers that have announced plans to use Category Business Planner include Meijer, SUPERVALU, Bruno's, Walgreens, Hannaford Bros., CVS, and Eckerd.

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.