Atlantic Beverage Company, Inc. hires president and chief executive officer.

BALTIMORE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 1, 1996--Atlantic Beverage Company, Inc. (Nasdaq:ABEV) today announced that it has executed a long-term employment agreement with Alan F. Sussna to continue serving as the Company's President and Chief Executive Officer.

Mr. Sussna, age 39, also serves as a member of the Company's Board of Directors.

In addition, Mr. Sussna will be based in Northbrook, IL where Atlantic Beverage intends to establish, within the next 30 days, its corporate office to oversee its food and beverage businesses which include operations in Texas, Louisiana, Kentucky and Maryland.

Mr. Sussna, who joined Atlantic Beverage in March 1996, has extensive experience with the food and beverage industry. Previously, a partner in the consulting firms of McKinsey & Company and Bain & Company, he was responsible for opening offices as well as leading those firms' Consumer Goods practices. Mr. Sussna specialized in developing corporate, business unit and marketing strategies, as well as organizational improvement programs for leading consumer durables and branded package goods companies, including major food and beverage firms. He has also held industry positions as Executive Vice President - Sales and Marketing for Jim Beam Brands and in product management at Frito-Lay, Inc. Mr. Sussna is a graduate of Harvard College and received his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

More recently, Mr. Sussna was instrumental in assisting Atlantic Beverage in establishing a new corporate growth strategy that led to the Company's purchase of four food companies, Grogan's Country Sausage, Richards's Cajun Country Food Processors, Inc., Prefco, Inc. and Carlton Foods, Inc., earlier this year. These acquisitions reflect the Company's plan to establish a broader and more diverse base of operating companies and to be better positioned for additional acquisitions and growth in sales and earnings. The newly acquired businesses have significantly increased the size of Atlantic Beverage.

For the nine months ended September 30, 1996, previously reported October 28, 1996, revenues were approximately $111 million, an increase of approximately 560% from the first nine months of 1995. Earnings increased to $671,872 as compared to a loss $118,463 for the comparable period 1995.

Rick Elfman, Chairman of Atlantic Beverage Company, Inc., commented "We are very pleased to have Mr. Sussna as President and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Sussna is tremendously qualified, and his signing of a long-term employment agreement demonstrates his commitment to lead the Company in the implementation of its new corporate growth plan."

Alan Sussna commented, "I am excited to have been given the opportunity to increase Atlantic's shareholder value. Working with Atlantic Beverage thus far has been very rewarding and I look forward to continuing to leverage my experience in the food and beverage business, especially as it relates to meat products."

Atlantic Beverage Company, Inc., through its operations in Texas, Louisiana and Kentucky, manufactures, markets and distributes meat products for customers in a ten state region, and, through its operations in Maryland, distributes specialty, non-alcoholic beverages to customers in the Baltimore and Washington, D.C. metropolitan areas.

Through its food operations, the Company markets and distributes its own branded processed meat products under brand names including Blue Ribbon, Carlton, Richard's and Grogan's. Blue Ribbon is currently the best selling brand of bacon and sausage in the Houston market. Through its beverage operations the Company has exclusive distribution rights to its territory for several brands of juices, natural sodas, bottled waters and ready-to-drink teas.

CONTACT: Atlantic Beverage Company, Inc.

Alan Sussna, [phone]

or

Morgen-Walke Associates

Donna N. Stein/Cindy Hintelmann

Press: Stan Froelich/Nancy Gallinghouse

[phone]