ADVO Completes Debt Refinancing.

Business Editors

WINDSOR, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 9, 2003

ADVO, Inc. (NYSE:AD) announced today that it has completed the refinancing of its debt facilities. As planned, the company raised $275 million of facilities to replace its existing debt arrangements, consisting of 10-year notes totaling $125 million and a bank revolver totaling $150 million. These new facilities take advantage of favorable market conditions to provide the Company with a long-term source of capital and enhance its financial flexibility for the future. The $125 million, 10-year notes are comprised of $65 million at a fixed rate of 5.71%, and $60 million at a variable rate of LIBOR + 0.92%. As a result of the refinancing, the company will take a $1.4 million write off in its first fiscal quarter for previously capitalized financing costs.

"We are pleased with the results of the refinancing," said ADVO Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Gary Mulloy. "The greater financial flexibility achieved through these new facilities allows us to continue to invest aggressively in our Company's future growth. Additionally, it allows us to continue to enhance shareholder value by providing an inexpensive source of long-term capital."

This report contains certain forward looking statements regarding the Company's results of operations and financial position within the meaning of Sections 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Such forward looking statements are based on current information and expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from those in the forward looking statements. The Company's business is promotional in nature, and ADVO serves its clients on a "just in time" basis. As a result, fluctuations in the amount, timing, pages, weight, and kinds of advertising pieces can vary significantly from week to week, depending on its customers' promotional needs, inventories, and other factors. In any particular quarter these transactional fluctuations are difficult to predict, and can materially affect the Company's revenue and profit results. The Company's business contains additional risks and uncertainties which include, but are not limited to: general changes in customer demand and pricing; the possibility of consolidation in the retail sector; the impact of economic or political conditions on retail advertising spending and the Company's distribution system; postal and paper prices; possible governmental regulation or legislation affecting aspects of the Company's business; the efficiencies achieved with technology upgrades; the amount of shares the Company repurchases in the future under its buyback program; fluctuations in interest rates related to the outstanding debt; and other general economic factors.

ADVO, Inc. (NYSE:AD) is the largest targeted in-home print advertising company in the United States, with annual revenues of nearly $1.2 billion. The Company's shared mail advertising programs reach, on average, 67 million US households weekly, and 105 million households monthly. This includes its core ShopWise(TM) branded programs, and the reach of its ADVO National Network Extension (A.N.N.E.) program. Additionally, the Company's SuperCoups(R) advertising solutions provide targeted advertising for local neighborhood businesses. ADVO launched the America's Looking For Its Missing Children(R) program in partnership with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and the United States Postal Service in 1985, and ADVO's missing child cards are responsible for safely recovering 131 children. ADVO has 23 mail processing facilities and 34 sales offices nationwide and in Canada. ADVO's corporate headquarters are located at One Targeting Centre Windsor, Connecticut 06095, and the Company can be visited at its Web site at www.advo.com.