Danisco and Woolworths launch health-boosting HOWARU™ probiotic cultures in South Africa Danisco, the world's leading supplier of food ingredients has licensed its premium probiotic trademark, HOWARU™, to Woolworths, the South African chain of department stores. WW is the first chain store to market HOWARU™.

"This is a significant agreement" says Danny O'Regan, Business Director of Danisco's culture business, and continues: "Woolworths is an ideal partner for this concept. The number of stores and the popularity of their food stores make Woolworths and ideal partner for in-store promotion. At the same time, a massive product campaign marks a new era for Danisco as this is the first Business to Consumer branding of a Danisco food ingredient."

"An important goal for Woolworths is to provide the consumer with good food which contributes to health beyond basic nutrition," says Richard Butt, Foods Director of Woolworths. "Combining HOWARU™ premium probiotics, with Woolworths nutritious dairy products, illustrates how we can achieve this goal."

"Health is a driving force behind food innovation in general, especially in the yoghurt segment of the dairy market" says Siegbert Philipp, Danisco's probiotic Product Manager. "The market for probiotics is still developing, not only in dairy but also in the food and nutritional supplement industries. For manufacturers, the choice of ingredients is crucial for success."

This HOWARU™ probiotic cultures concept has two key components:

1. To bring high quality, clinically proven probiotic strains to the customers
2. To make it easy for consumers to recognise when dairy or food products contain these strains, by marketing them under a consumer-friendly brand - HOWARU™ (pronounced 'How are you?').

HOWARU™ premium probiotic cultures can be found in the entire Woolworths yoghurt range (45 different product lines). Woolworths future plans include adding these premium probiotics in other high quality value added products.

Danisco will support Woolworths in key promotional activities in South Africa, e.g. targeting doctors and dieticians, as well as facilitating a probiotics conference. The objective is to create certainty in the minds of the consumers that when choosing a product with the HOWARU™ logo, the choice of a well-documented health-beneficial product has been made.

Woolworths in South Africa is not affiliated with Woolworths in Europe, America and Australia.

For further information please contact
Danny O'Regan, Business Director (Cultures), Danisco, tel.: + 49 4661 602 115
Siegbert Philipp, Product Manager (Probiotics), Danisco, tel.: + 49 4661 602 114

About Danisco
Danisco develops and produces food ingredients, sweeteners and sugar. The Group employs approx. 8,000 people in some 40 countries and reported net sales of DKK 16.6 billion in 2002/03. Danisco's broad product portfolio includes emulsifiers, stabilisers, flavours and sweeteners such as xylitol and fructose. Many of these ingredients are produced from natural raw materials and contribute, for instance, to improving the texture in bread, ice cream, yoghurt and other products. Danisco is also one of the largest and most efficient sugar producers in Europe.

About Woolworths in South Africa
Woolworths Holdings Limited is a South African based leading retail group that operates locally and internationally through two subsidiaries. Woolworths (Proprietary) Limited and Country Road Limited. Stores are based in Africa, the Middle East, Australia, New Zealand, the United States of America and Singapore. The Group employs 11,472 people. Woolworths has 118 department stores in South Africa, net sales R 9.5 billion and a market share of 7.5 per cent in the total retail food market.

Links:
www.danisco.com
www.woolworths.co.za