MERGES WITH

ID News--Premier members vote 91-1 for UniPro merger

JANUARY 22, 2002 -- Premier Foodservice Distributors of America's members have voted 91-1 to approve a merger with UniPro Foodservice, Inc., Atlanta. The latter's members are voting by mail and, upon anticipated approval, the deal will close Feb. 1. Premier headquarter offices in Stockton, CA, will close Jan. 31, with a transition team in place.

The marriage of the two groups will create a distributor buying and marketing organization of some $16-$17 billion in member sales clout.

 This merger creates a mega-buying group of independent distributors, that is the 3rd largest Foodservice entity in the U.S.; after Cysco @ $21B and US Foods @ $18B.

It combines the  Nugget Code  Surfine & NIFDA labels, in one Buying Group - UniPro.

The Merchants family of companies will continue to handle the Nugget label.