LBIX Leading Brands (delisted)

BROOMFIELD, Colo., Aug. 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Leading Brands, Inc., Vancouver, Canada, (NASDAQ:LBIX) has launched its TREK(R) Natural Sports Drinks and NITRO(TM) Energy Drinks in new 20-oz. Heat-Tek(TM) Brick polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles from Ball Corporation (NYSE:BLL). The bottle's unique, proprietary design eliminates the need for side vacuum panels, providing a smoother label panel that gives consumers a more comfortable grip and facilitates labeling. (Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060801/LATUV001 ) "The Brick successfully eliminates the "crinkle effect" created by applying labels over side vacuum panels," says Mike Vaughn, vice president, innovation, Ball Corporation. "More importantly, it does not require the significant equipment modification required to fill other panelless bottles in the market so it is a very cost-effective solution." According to Leading Brands, TREK(R) is an all-Natural Sports Drink that is sweetened with pure cane sugar, not high fructose corn syrup, and is "osmotically balanced" to allow for fast absorption by the body. NITRO(TM) Energy Drinks are unique, non-carbonated beverages that pack the full punch of an energy drink and hydration at the same time. "Ball's Brick bottle provides a very cost-effective way for us to improve consumers' drinking experience with a smoother, easy-to-grip label panel," says Joanne Saunders, vice president of marketing, Leading Brands. "By offering our products in this bottle, combined with the trademark TREK(R) loop cap that allows the bottle to be easily clipped to back-packs, belts, bikes and other paraphernalia, we believe we're giving consumers something very desirable." Ball's packaging innovation team designed a unique structure for the patent-pending Brick bottle, eliminating the need for side vacuum panels, and gave it similar dimensions to Ball's standard 20-oz. Heat-Tek(TM) bottle so it can run on the same filling lines. Like all of Ball's Heat-Tek(TM) bottles, the Brick is ideal for juices, teas, sports drinks, enhanced water or any hot-filled beverage filled at temperatures up to 185 degrees F. Unbreakable, re-closeable and 100 % recyclable, it offers many advantages over glass bottles. The 40.5 gram bottle features a 43 mm finish to ensure a good pour. TREK(R) Natural Sports Drinks are available in the United Stares and Canada in four flavors: Orange, Fruit Punch, Lemon-Lime and Wildberry. NITRO(TM) Hydrating Energy Drinks come in three flavors: Grape, Blue Raspberry and Red Berry. Leading Brands, Inc. is North America's only fully integrated premium beverage company. The Company's unique Integrated Distribution System (IDS)(TM) offers turnkey, one-stop shopping to food and beverage brand owners, including manufacturing, distribution, sales/marketing and licensing. In addition, Leading Brands produces their own line of beverages such as TrueBlue(R), LiteBlue(R), TREK(R) Sports Drink, Nitro(TM) Energy Drink, Soy2O(R), Country Harvest(R) Juices, Caesar's(R) Bloody Caesar Cocktails and Infinity(TM) Sparkling Mountain Spring Water. Ball Corporation is a supplier of high-quality metal and plastic packaging products and owns Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. Ball reported 2005 sales of $5.8 billion and employs 15,600 people worldwide. Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains "forward-looking" statements concerning future events and financial performance. Words such as "expects," "anticipates," "estimates" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Key risks and uncertainties are summarized in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including in Exhibit 99.2 in our Form 10-K. These filings are available at our Web site and at http://www.sec.gov/. Factors that might affect our packaging segments include fluctuation in consumer and customer demand and preferences; availability and cost of raw materials, including recent significant increases in resin, steel, aluminum and energy costs, and the ability to pass such increases on to customers; competitive packaging availability, pricing and substitution; changes in climate and weather; fruit, vegetable and fishing yields; industry productive capacity and competitive activity; failure to achieve anticipated productivity improvements or production cost reductions, including those associated with our beverage can end project; the German mandatory deposit or other restrictive packaging laws; changes in major customer or supplier contracts or loss of a major customer or supplier; changes in foreign exchange rates, tax rates and activities of foreign subsidiaries; and the effect of LIFO accounting. Factors that might affect our aerospace segment include: funding, authorization, availability and returns of government contracts; and delays, extensions and technical uncertainties affecting segment contracts. Factors that might affect the company as a whole include those listed plus: acquisitions, joint ventures or divestitures; integration of recently acquired businesses; regulatory action or laws including tax, environmental and workplace safety; governmental investigations; technological developments and innovations; goodwill impairment; antitrust, patent and other litigation; strikes; labor cost changes; rates of return projected and earned on assets of the company's defined benefit retirement plans; changes to the company's pension plans; reduced cash flow; interest rates affecting our debt; and changes to unaudited results due to statutory audits or other effects. http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060801/LATUV001 http://photoarchive.ap.org/ DATASOURCE: Ball Corporation CONTACT: Investors, Ann. T. Scott, +1-303-460-3537, , or Media, Jennifer Hoover, +1-303-460-5541, , both of Ball Corporation

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