Meals.com Powers New Nestle Web Site; www.VeryBestMeals.com Showcases Recipes and Meal Planning Tools

Business Wire, Nov 10, 2000

Business/High-Tech Editors, Food Writers

BELLEVUE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 10, 2000

Meals.com Inc., a subsidiary of Coinstar Inc. (Nasdaq:CSTR), and Nestle USA Inc., today announced the launch of www.VeryBestMeals.com, a new Nestle Web site that features recipes exclusive to Nestle and 16 of its well-known brands, utilizing the Meals.com database of more than 10,000 recipes.

Participating Nestle brands include Stouffer's, Stouffer's Lean Cuisine, Stouffer's Skillet Sensations and Oven Sensations, Buitoni, Nestea, Nestle Carnation Instant Breakfast, Nestle Carnation Coffee-mate, Nestle Carnation Hot Cocoa Mix, Nestle Treasures, Ortega, Nestle Nesquik, Libby's Juicy Juice, Taster's Choice, Nescafe, Kern's and Nestle Flipz.

Nestle products appear throughout the site in sections such as "Recipe of the Day," "Tonight's Dinner Ideas" and "Meal of the Week." The site also incorporates personalized meal planning tools, such as My Meal Plan, My Recipe Box and My Grocery List, along with helpful tips and nutritional information, to make meal planning and grocery shopping easier.

"We have been working with Meals.com as a client on their branded and retailer sites for some time," said Ken Crites, Nestle E-business Marketing Manager. "They have proven to us they have the people and technology in place to create and service a top flight Web site. We are very pleased with the results and see this as a positive step in the development of our online presence."

"This is a tremendous step in the growth of Meals.com," said Mark Seals, COO of Meals.com. "We are now an application service provider for the world's largest food company. By building and maintaining VeryBestMeals.com for Nestle, Meals.com is establishing its technology in the very competitive online food marketing arena."

Although powered by Meals.com, the look and feel of the Web site is customized to support Nestle's brands and image. VeryBestMeals.com complements Nestle's other online ventures, including www.VeryBestBaking.com, www.VeryBestBaby.com, and www.VeryBestPet.com.

"VeryBestMeals.com is truly a unique Web site," said Peter Barbaresi, executive vice president of sales at Meals.com. "It integrates 16 Nestle branded products, and will very effectively position and promote these brands to consumers in the context of their shopping decisions. We are pleased to deepen our existing relationship with Nestle by powering their newest Web site."

In addition to its branded site and VeryBestMeals.com, Meals.com supplies meal planning, recipe content, and infrastructure for Web sites hosted by supermarket retailers such as www.marsh.net, www.shopnsavefood.com, www.shopfoodland.com, www.foodlandstores.com, www.ukrops.com, www.bigy.com, www.gerlands.com and www.kingkullen.com, as well as Internet company's www.food.com, www.bluesuitmom.com, and www.mom.com. Meals.com also has relationships with several other major consumer product manufacturers. These products and brands appear throughout the Meals.com network of Web sites. Meals.com also powers in-store technologies, such as the The Shopper kiosk, a Web access terminal fully deployed at Ukrops stores in Virginia and linked to the Ukrops Web site, providing consumers with personalized messages and relevant information.

About Nestle USA, Inc.

For well over a century, Nestle has been making the very best food and beverage products for families around the world. In the U.S., Nestle's well-known brands include: Stouffer's(R) and Stouffer's(R) Lean Cuisine(R), Ortega(R), Buitoni(R), Nestle(R) Toll House(R), Nestle(R) NesQuik(TM), Carnation(R) Coffee-mate(R), Nescafe(R), Libby's(R) Juicy Juice(R), Taster's Choice(R), PowerBar(R), Nestle Crunch(R), Butterfinger(R), Wonka(R), Friskies(R) Fancy Feast(R), ALPO(R), and Mighty Dog(R). Headquartered in Glendale, Calif., Nestle USA has 19,000 employees, $8 billion in sales and is part of Swiss-based Nestle S.A. -- the world's largest food company. For more information, visit www.nestleusa.com.

About Meals.com

Meals.com Inc. connects consumers, grocery stores and manufacturers through on-line technologies that provide shoppers with relevant information and special offers based on their personal preferences. Meals.com is a subsidiary of Coinstar Inc. (Nasdaq:CSTR), a coin counting and e-services company that has relationships with more than 8,000 U.S. supermarkets.

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties, including Meals.com's future performance with respect to customer contracts. Actual results could differ materially from the results identified or implied in any forward-looking statement discussed herein. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, Meals.com's ability to execute on its contracts, and its ability to attract and retain retailers, as well as the risks that are more fully described under the caption "Risk Factors" included in the most recent reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by Coinstar Inc.