Brio Completes Purchase of Food Distributor, Formalizes Relationship With Cable Car Beverage Corporation, Announces Intention to Change Name to Leading Brands Inc.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 6, 1999--

BRIO INDUSTRIES INC. (Nasdaq:BRIO) Canada's largest independent packager and distributor of juices, waters, soft drinks and new age beverages, is pleased to announce that it has successfully concluded the purchase of Can-Am Distributors Ltd. and Alamo Snacks Ltd.

The Company has consequently established its Food Division, headed by Dave Read and Tim Dagg, the former principals of Can-Am and Alamo. With annualized sales of approximately $20,000,000 Cdn, this acquisition provides an ideal balance to the seasonality of Brio's beverage products and numerous operational synergies.

Brio is also pleased to announce that it has entered into a multi-year distribution agreement with Cable Car Beverage Corporation of Denver, Colorado for Stewart's Fountain Classics(R) premium soft drinks. This formalizes and extends an earlier relationship between the parties.

Brio also announces its intention to seek the approval of its shareholders to change the name of the Company to "Leading Brands Inc."

Brio Chairman and CEO Ralph McRae said: "We have realized our goal of becoming a fully integrated brand management company. The development of our Integrated Distribution System and the application of that system to the wide variety of beverage and food brands that we now represent has resulted in a dramatic evolution of our business.

"We are no longer simply a bottler and distributor of beverages. Our marketing department develops concepts and implements brand strategies, our creative staff designs packaging and point of sale materials, our research department formulates and creates new products, our production staff work to deliver us the lowest cost of goods possible, our traffic department plans the movement of goods across half of North America, our sales team assures the pervasive exposure of our brands to our customers and our distribution group delivers the products to market. Whether we are dealing with brands that we license or distribute, brands that we package, store brands that we design and produce or our own proprietary brands, Brio is about 'brands'.

"We chose the name 'Leading Brands' because it is the most simple advertisement of our business. We are very proud that the hard work of the past couple of years has allowed us to make this bold new statement."

Statements in this news release that are not historical are to be regarded as forward-looking statements which are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Such risks and uncertainties with respect to the Company's business include general economic conditions, weather conditions, changing beverage consumption trends, pricing, the availability of raw materials and economic uncertainties, including currency.