WATERLOO, ON.—July 1, 2002—Global Beverage Group (GBG) and Bottler Systems Inc (BSI) today announced that they have signed an agreement to jointly operate as Global Beverage Group (GBG).

Doug Avery, President of BSI, said, “Our customers and employees agree that the merger will have a positive impact on the industry. We are proud to become part of GBG and feel that this merger will help provide our current and future customers with a deeper and more elegant beverage distribution solution by leveraging our combined technologies and expanding the range of advanced tools. This merger will drive innovative new products for the beverage distribution industry.”

Ted Hastings, CEO of GBG, stated, “With the addition of the BSI employees, products and customer base we are continuing to execute against our strategy to deliver an unparalleled portfolio of solutions and services that support DSD beverage accounts around the world. This transaction further solidifies GBG’s commitment to maintain the position of market leader in this segment.”

The merger brings an immediate impact to GBG’s operations with an increase in the depth of products available to the Direct Store Delivery (DSD) beverage market from one source. GBG also builds on its market dominance by adding bandwidth to its professional services organization in the areas of route accounting, full line vending and mobile computing. BSI brings to the GBG family of products over 18 years of beverage software experience and increases GBG’s customer base by 15%.

GBG is headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada and will continue operations in BSI’s office in Durham, North Carolina.