Christopher J. Willi Named Chief Financial Officer of Sherwood Brands.

Business Editors

ROCKVILLE, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 2, 2001

Sherwood Brands Inc. (AMEX:SHD), a manufacturer, marketer and distributor of branded confectionery products and gift items, today announced that Christopher J. Willi has been named chief financial officer.

Uziel Frydman, president and chief executive officer, said: "We are thrilled that Christopher Willi has agreed to join Sherwood Brands as CFO. Chris is an experienced, innovative, and energetic financial and operational executive with substantial experience in accounting and cost management, and a proven track record in achieving aggressive growth goals.

"In addition to his duties as CFO, Chris will work closely with me in executing Sherwood's growth strategy. Through internally generated growth and a single relatively small acquisition completed in late 1998, we have doubled Sherwood's revenue in just the past 2 years. But we are not satisfied. Our near-term objective is to reach $100 million in sales, with a commensurate increase in net income, and we are convinced that we can make this happen through continued expansion of our product lines, both our branded candies and gift items, as well as deeper penetration of existing accounts and the addition of new national accounts and distributors, as well as additional acquisitions. With his outstanding background, Chris will help us accelerate the process of identifying, negotiating, pricing, financing, closing and integrating future transactions. As we have stated previously, we hope to complete another major acquisition in 2001."

Willi, 40 years old, had been chief financial officer of Cyntergy Corp., Rockville, since 1998, where he managed the financial and operational information for this global IT service business, established new bank lines of credit, and planned and implemented the redesign of the company's processes to enhance work flow and improve customer service.

From 1992 to 1998, he was corporate controller for PGI Inc., a communications services company, where he directed due diligence for more than a dozen acquisitions and was instrumental in obtaining $50 million in financing and preparing filings for the company's IPO.

Earlier, Willi was director of finance at National Trade Productions Inc. and asset manager for a unit of Canadian Pacific Corp. He began his career as a senior accountant at Arthur Andersen & Co. in 1981.

A Certified Public Accountant, Willi earned a B.S. degree in accounting and finance from the University of Utah, Salt Lake City in 1981 and a J.D. degree from Southern Methodist University in 1983. He lives with his wife and child in Leesburg, Va.

About Sherwood Brands

Sherwood Brands Inc., with headquarters in Rockville, manufactures, markets and distributes confectionery products.

The company's branded products include COWS(R), a line of soft and chewy toffees and dairy butter and cream hard candies; RUGER(R) wafers, a line of wafer cookies in chocolate, vanilla and strawberry flavors; ELANA(R), Belgian chocolate bars; and demitasse(R), a line of tea biscuits in a variety of flavors.

Sherwood also manufactures hard candies, jelly beans, ALIEN(R) and TONGUE TATTOO(R) lollipops and packs gift baskets and gift items in its facilities in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains statements that are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on current expectations, estimates and projections about the company's business based, in part, on assumptions made by management. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed or forecasted in such forward-looking statements due to numerous factors, including but not limited to the following: changes in demand for the company's products, product mix, the timing of customer orders and deliveries, the impact of competitive products and pricing, constraints on supplies of critical raw materials, excess or shortage of production capacity, and other risks discussed from time to time in the company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings and reports. In addition, such statements could be affected by general industry and market conditions and growth rates, and general domestic and international economic conditions. Such forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made and the company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this release.