Fresh Foods Subsidiary Receives Award As A Top Supplier To National Distributor.

CLAREMONT, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 2, 1998--Pierre Foods, LLC, with plants in Cincinnati, Ohio and Claremont, North Carolina, was recently named as one of the nation's top suppliers to SYSCO, the largest foodservice marketing and distribution organization in North America.

Pierre is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fresh Foods, Inc. (Nasdaq: FOOD). Fresh Foods, which operated under the name WSMP, Inc. until May 8, is a North Carolina-based, fully integrated producer and marketer of fully cooked, value-added food products. These products include numerous fully cooked meat products as well as packaged microwaveable sandwiches for the foodservice, vending, convenience store, and other home meal replacement markets.

The company sells its high-quality, value-added products through various distribution channels under the Pierre(tm), Fast Choice(R), and Mom 'n' Pop's(R) brand names, which are widely recognized in the food industry. Fresh Foods also sells a variety of sandwiches under several national restaurant brands.

Winners of SYSCO's Top 100 Supplier awards were chosen from more than 1,500 supplier companies throughout the nation.

"We were very pleased to win this award, which is a reflection of our commitment to excellence," said Norbert E. "Norb" Woodhams, president of Pierre Foods. "Receiving this type of recognition from a company that generates more than $15 billion in annual sales is, in our opinion, an affirmation of the high quality of products and services we deliver."

"Pierre Foods and all of its employees should be proud of this award. It is the type of recognition that reflects positively on all segments of our company," said David R. Clark, president and chief operating officer of Fresh Foods.

In addition to Pierre Foods, LLC, Fresh Foods is the parent company of Claremont Restaurant Group, LLC, through which it owns and operates 66 restaurants and franchises an additional 37 units. Forty-seven of the restaurants the company owns and operates are Sagebrush(R) Steakhouse & Saloon restaurants. The company also owns and operates 13 Western Steer(R) units, five Prime Sirloin(R) locations and one Bennett's(tm) restaurant. The franchised locations operate under the Western Steer, Prime Sirloin and Bennett's concepts.