American Italian Pasta Company (NYSE: PLB) a leading producer of dry pasta in North America, yesterday announced that it has completed the previously announced acquisition of seven pasta brands from Borden Foods for $67.5 million, plus inventory in a cash transaction. The company acquired the Anthony’s®, Globe/A-1®, Luxury®, Mrs. Grass®, Pennsylvania Dutch®, R&F® and Ronco® brands, in addition to certain tangible assets. No manufacturing assets were included in the transaction.

“We are very excited to add these strong, profitable brands to our branded portfolio,” said Timothy S. Webster, president and chief executive officer of AIPC. “They are leading brands in their markets and have been gaining market share over the past several years. They give us a very profitable, new revenue stream with virtually no geographic overlap with Muellers. We look forward to successfully integrating the brands into our business model and believe we can enhance their existing strong market position with the benefits available from our low-cost operating structure.”

Webster confirmed that the acquisition is expected to have no significant impact on fiscal 2001 earnings per share, other than certain one-time charges for acquisition-related expenses. The transaction is expected to be accretive to fiscal 2002 earnings and further guidance will be provided when the Company releases its third-quarter results on July 25, 2001.

The Company also announced a new board member and three additions to its management team to support its branded business. Horst W. Schroeder, Chairman of the Board, said “I am very pleased with the depth that we have added with these new team members. Tim Pollak, our new board member, has a stellar background in advertising with significant consumer product and branded marketing expertise. In addition to Tim, the other new members of the team bring significant branded-marketing and business expertise and strengthen our ability to profitably grow our branded business. I am particularly pleased we are able to add two senior executives very familiar with the Borden brands.”

• Tim Pollak was elected by the Board of Directors on June 21, 2001. Mr. Pollak has been appointed to a term expiring with the annual meeting of shareholders to be held in 2004 and replaces David Y. Howe who recently retired. His background includes 30 years experience in advertising and marketing communications. He has managed premier global-brand relationships with Colgate, Citibank, Sony, Monsanto and others, and was chief executive officer of both Young & Rubicam, New York and HDM Worldwide.
  
  
• Ric Brockmeier joins AIPC as Senior Vice President of Marketing and Category Development. His background includes eight years of food industry experience at Kraft Foods, Inc., where he progressed through various brand-management responsibilities. Mr. Brockmeier’s most recent role at Kraft was as Senior Brand Manager responsible for the development and management of strategic brand-building initiatives for strong consumer brands such as Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, and Easy Mac.
  
  
  
• Tom Olive joins the company as Vice President of Finance for AIPC’s Strategic Business Units. Mr. Olive brings a strong background of fiscal discipline and strategic business planning in a branded-company environment after spending the past 15 years in financial management positions at Procter & Gamble, Campbell Soup Company, Arnotts Group (Australia) and, most recently, Borden Foods. While at Borden, Mr. Olive led the development and implementation of five-year strategic and annual operating plans that significantly improved business unit earnings.
  
  
• Dan Rennell joins AIPC as Vice President of Trade Marketing. His background includes 15 years of food-industry experience with the last eight years being at Borden Foods, where he served as Director of Customer Marketing. Mr. Rennell developed promotional best practices for the pasta category and grew share through new brand introductions and refining trade spending. Mr. Rennell has had several years of trade marketing experience on the acquired brands.

Webster concluded, “The pieces are in place for us to achieve our goal of continuing to profitably grow our leadership position in the dry-pasta category. I am extremely pleased with the caliber of individuals we have added to our team and am looking forward to working with them. We are committed to expanding the dry-pasta category by offering high-quality products at competitive prices with the goal to rekindle the excitement of pasta preparation and pasta consumption for the American consumer.”

Founded in 1988 and based in Kansas City, Mo., American Italian Pasta Company is the largest and the fastest-growing producer and marketer of dry pasta in North America. The Company has four plants that are strategically located in Excelsior Springs, Mo., Columbia, S.C., Kenosha, Wis. and Verolanuova, Italy. The Company has approximately 550 employees located in the United States and Italy.

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The statements contained in this release regarding the potential impact on revenues and earnings per share resulting in 2001 and 2002 from the acquisition of seven Borden Foods pasta brands are forward looking and based on current expectations. Actual future results could differ materially from those anticipated by such forward-looking statements. The differences could be caused by a number of factors, included but not limited to our dependence on a limited number of customers for a substantial portion of our revenue, our ability to manage rapid growth, our ability to obtain necessary raw materials and minimize fluctuations in raw material prices, the impact of the highly competitive environment in which we operate, reliance exclusively on a single product category, our limited experience in the branded retail pasta business, our ability to attract and retain key personnel, our ability to cost- effectively transport our products and the significant risks inherent in our recent international expansion. For additional discussion of the principal factors that could cause actual results to be materially different, refer to our Current Report on Form 10-K dated December 20, 2000, filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission (Commission file No. 001-13403), any amendments thereto and other matters disclosed in the Company’s other public filings. The Company will not update any forward-looking statements in this press release to reflect future events.

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