Eleven Leading Retail Companies to Form WorldWide Retail Exchange.

Business Editors

BOISE, Idaho--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 31, 2000

Web-Based B2B Marketplace With Combined Sales of USD 300 Billion

Eleven of the world's leading retailers, including Albertson's, Inc. (NYSE:ABS), today announced they will form a collaborative partnership to establish the WorldWide Retail Exchange. The new web-based, business-to-business exchange is expected to begin operating mid-2000. It is designed to facilitate and simplify trading between retailers and over 100,000 suppliers, partners and distributors.

The participants are Albertson's (US), Auchan (France), Casino (France), CVS (US), Kingfisher (UK), K-Mart (US), Marks & Spencer (UK), Royal Ahold (The Netherlands), Safeway Inc. (US), Target (US) and Tesco (UK). Together the group operates over 30,000 stores and had 1999 combined sales of over Euro 300 billion (USD 300 billion). Other prominent retailers are also invited to join the exchange and have expressed interest in the initiative. Cora, the leading French-Belgian retailer, has also taken the decision to join shortly.

The WorldWide Retail Exchange is a web-based marketplace, enabling transactions between retailers operating in the food, general merchandise, and drugstore sectors. It is an open exchange and provides an information highway of publicly available item data together with private price and promotion information between multiple buyers and sellers. The exchange will also provide the means for auctioning products.

Participating companies anticipate interaction on the WorldWide Retail Exchange to be more efficient due to standardized item information. The WorldWide Retail Exchange is expected to lower costs in the supply chain for all participants.

Initially, the founding members of WorldWide Retail Exchange will each hold 5% of the new company's share capital. The remaining equity will be re-considered by the WorldWide Retail Exchange when it is known how many other retailers wish to join the exchange. Currently, CEO's of the participating companies, or their representatives, form the Executive Committee. In future, the WorldWide Retail Exchange is expected to be an independently managed company. The founding members will review major technologies and invite IT companies to work with the exchange.

In the first few years, investment in the collaborative partnership is expected to amount to approximately Euro 100 million (USD 100 million). Savings generated from WorldWide Retail Exchange for the participating retail companies are expected to rapidly exceed costs.

Commenting on the development, the participating retail companies said: "We're proud to be part of this innovative exchange, the largest of its kind in the world. We are particularly pleased that companies from both Europe and the United States are part of the WorldWide Retail Exchange. This comprehensive initiative will reduce trade costs significantly, particularly benefiting our customers, our shareholders and our companies."

Albertson's, Inc. is one of the largest retail food and drug chains in the United States. Based in Boise, Idaho, the Company currently operates almost 2,500 retail stores in 37 states across the United States.