Press release

“Willys is the country's leading discount food chain; we offer our customers Sweden’s cheapest bag of groceries,” says Thomas Evertsson, President of Willys. “We don't see any contradiction between low prices and care for the environment. We already have a large offering of environmental products and are working to achieve more environment-friendly store operations. Our cooperation with the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation will be a further catalyst in our environmental efforts.”

SSNC will be a strategic environmental partner of Willys and thereby a resource in the company's work on establishing itself as a sustainable retail food chain.

“Our cooperation with Willys will enable us to help accelerate the pace of Willys’ environmental work, and with the help of our consumer advice service, we can encourage more consumers to choose ecolabelled products, which is clearly in line with our ambition to be the hallmark of green consumerism in Sweden,” says Svante Axelsson, Secretary General of SSNC.

The collaboration between Willys and SSNC entails, among other things, that Willys will actively market SSNC's work on boosting its membership numbers and resources, to the benefit of projects conducted by the organisation.

"When our stores become ecolabelled, our customers can be assured that they are shopping at a store that is working to conserve nature and protect the environment," says Åsa Domeij, Head of Environment and Social Responsibility at Axfood.

Willys is seeking permission to ecolabel all of its stores with SSNC's Bra Miljöval ("Good Environmental Choice") label. When the stores have been approved by SSNC's certifiers, the Good Environmental Choice label will certify that the stores have good access to ecolabelled and organic products, and that they have adopted good environmental practices in general, such as through ambitious waste sorting and energy savings programmes.



For further information, please contact:
Johanna Eurén, Willys Communications, 070-3461348
Åsa Domeij, Head of Environment and Social Responsibility, Axfood,
tel. +46-73-077 43 07
Thomas Evertsson, President Willys, tel +46-70-584 89 50
Svante Axelsson, Secretary General, the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, tel. +46-70-728 25 85
Anders Grönvall, Press Manager, the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, tel. +46-70-6554619

Willys is Sweden's leading discount retail food chain. Our business concept is to offer Sweden's cheapest bag of groceries. Willys has approximately 150 stores across Sweden, with sales of slightly more than SEK 16.7 bn in 2008. Willys is part of Axfood AB, which is listed on Nasdaq OMX Stockholm AB's Large Cap list. For more information visit www.willys.se.

The Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (Naturskyddsföreningen) is a non-profit environmental organization with power to bring about change. We spread knowledge, map environmental threats, create solutions, and influence politicians and public authorities, at both national and international levels. Moreover, we are behind one of the world’s most challenging ecolabels, Bra Miljöval ("Good Environmental Choice"). Climate, the oceans, forests, environmental toxins, and agriculture are our main areas of involvement. We welcome you to be come a member, make a donation, or become a corporate sponsor. www.naturskyddsforeningen.se Pg 90 19 09-2/Tel. +46-8-702 65 00, Address: Box 4625, SE-116 91 Stockholm. Visitors' address: Åsögatan 115, Stockholm