Notes to Editors

1997 Business Developments

Dairy Farm is an international retailing and wholesaling group which focuses primarily on the Asia-Pacific Region, with additional interests in the United Kingdom. The Group operates some 1,500* outlets, principally supermarkets, convenience stores and drugstores, and its associates operate a further 1,300. The Group employs some 48,300* people and its associates a further 41,900. In 1996, Dairy Farm reported sales of US$7,000 million which, with its associates, totalled some US$12,800 million.

Since the arrival in June 1997 of Dairy Farm's new Managing Director, Ronald J Floto, further action has been taken to concentrate the Group's focus on its core retail activities in the AsiaPacific Region and to improve the profitability of the overall business

As part of a reorganisation of the Group announced in October, the management has been further strengthened with the most recent additions being Tim Lewis, Group Chief Information Officer; Robert Neslund, Regional Director, North Asia; John Pearl, Group Director, Human Resources; and ViJay YaJnik, Director, Specialty Companies.

In September, the Group's non-core manufacturing operations, a 49% shareholding in Nestl?Dairy Farm, were sold to Nestl?for US$40 million, thereby exiting the ice cream and chilled products manufacturing sector.

In October, Dairy Farm announced the sale of its Simago supermarket chain in Spain which the Company had acquired in 1990. Most recently, in December, the Company announced the closure of its remaining loss-making Mannings drugstores in Taiwan.

* These figures include Simago but do not include Mannings Taiwan.