USA:  SAFEWAY TO SELL SEATTLE'S BEST ORGANIC COFFEE 9 August

from: <www.organicts.com

Seattle's Best Coffee® has signed an agreement with Safeway Inc., to sell the entire Seattle's Best Coffee line of organic coffee in about 1,400 stores across the country.

"The grocery market is a high growth segment for Seattle's Best Coffee," says Steve Schickler, president of Seattle Coffee Company, parent company of Seattle's Best Coffee. "This is a tremendous opportunity to continue our growth and make our brand much more accessible to a broader market." The agreement will result in the largest distribution of Fair Trade Certified(R) organically grown coffee products in North American grocery stores to date. Seattle's Best Coffee Fair Trade Certified Organic French Roast is harvested in the highlands of Southern Peru. The coffee is grown by a collection of small farms, which produce a rich, smooth, flavorful coffee.  These farms produce coffee under canopies of various indigenous trees. This habitat is beneficial to the numerous migratory bird species, which live in the area.

The organic food industry accounts for $7.7 billion in revenue each year in the U.S. and has grown at an average annual rate of 20 percent over the last 10 years.  The Seattle's Best Coffee organic line will be offered in Safeway stores located across the U.S., including Vons stores in Southern California and Nevada, Chicago-based Dominick's stores, Randalls and Tom Thumb stores in Texas, as well as Carr's stores in Alaska. The line will include six Organic Crop Improvement Association (OCIA) certified organic blends,

Sumatra, Tierra Verde, Blue Water, Breakfast, Twilight Decaf, and "the Transfair Fair Trade Certified Organic French Roast."

"We are very proud to be able to partner with Safeway in bringing our quality coffee to Safeway customers while practicing equitable economics," says Schickler.

Seattle's Best Coffee's organic line was introduced into Seattle's Best Coffee cafes several years ago with immediate consumer acceptance and remarkable growth.  SBC's certified organic coffee is 100 percent high-altitude, shade-grown and free of pesticides and herbicides. "Seattle's Best Coffee is deeply committed to working responsibly with people in coffee growing regions and the environmental benefits of shade-grown coffee are also just as important to us," Schickler says. "Seattle's Best Coffee's customers will benefit by tasting the exceptional flavor of shade grown organic coffee while contributing to a better environment."

TransFair USA (http://www.transfairusa.org), a non-profit monitoring agency, is the only organization providing independent, third-party certification of Fair Trade Certified products in the U.S. TransFair promotes mutually beneficial relationships between farmers and coffee companies, and educates consumers about international trade and economic development.  Fair trade offers farmers fair prices, direct trade, and access to credit. Through fair trade, small family farmers are able to provide basic healthcare and improved nutrition for their families, keep their children in school, re-invest in their farms and communities, and practice environmentally responsible farming methods.

Seattle Coffee Company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Atlanta-based AFC Enterprises, Inc. (http://www.afce.com) franchises and operates 128 Seattle's Best Coffee(R) cafes (http://www.seattlesbest.com) and 19 Torrefazione Italia(R) cafes in eight countries worldwide. The company has more than 6,700 wholesale customers, including restaurants, foodservice, airlines, and hotels.

Safeway Inc. is a Fortune 50 company and one of the largest food and drug retailers in North America based on sales. The company operates 1,754 stores in the United States and Canada and had annual sales of $32.0 billion in 2000.