FRAMINGHAM, Mass. - May 23, 2001

Avery Dennison VIP Converted Products today announced it has joined with Fashionchain™, a leading provider of web-based supply chain management products and services, to enhance and expand its InfoChain Express^®™ product across the retail supply chain. InfoChain Express^® is a web-based data management tool offered by Avery Dennison's Worldwide Ticketing Services business which enables trading partners to connect seamlessly for improved accuracy, accessibility and reliability. By entering into this marketing alliance, Avery Dennison's clients now will be offered access to the proprietary Fashionchain Sourcing Server™, a subscription-based, web-enabled supply chain management solution that tracks complex pre-production, production and delivery processes.

"By aligning ourselves with Fashionchain and adding its Sourcing Server system to the InfoChain Express^® solution," says Kim LaVorgna, vice president of sales and marketing for Avery Dennison Worldwide Ticketing Services, "we are able to offer InfoChain Express^® clients unprecedented access to information throughout their supply chain. InfoChain Express^® empowers all parties along the retailer/brand owner supply chain to transmit, receive, acknowledge, view, change and redirect merchandise purchase orders, as well as generate orders for carton labels, product identification and packing lists. Together, we will offer clients convenient access to production information on a 24/7 basis at every stage of their supply chain - practically up to the moment the product hits the retail floor."

"Fashionchain's Sourcing Server and Avery Dennison's InfoChain Express^® offer apparel industry manufacturers, retailers and distributors a tool that enables them to track and exchange information at every point in their supply chain," says Dr. Michael Wybo, senior vice president and managing director of Fashionchain. "Together, we will work with apparel industry manufacturers, distributors and retailers to ensure that goods are produced on schedule and shipped to stores on time, in the right colors and assortments, with the right tags, carton labels and product identification information - which is key to protecting their margins from costly errors and chargebacks."

With 24/7 access to real time information, Fashionchain Sourcing Server and Avery Dennison InfoChain Express^® clients will be able to closely manage their bottom lines by tracking the status of purchase orders, managing current inventory, alerting partners to exceptions in the process and reacting promptly to changing market conditions.

"In addition, Fashionchain Sourcing Server's supply chain management and automated calendaring applications replace the apparel industry's traditional, labor- and time-intensive production tracking tools," Dr. Wybo continues. "This is a tool that allows subscribers to 'manage by exception' by delivering information in a timely fashion so clients can anticipate and avoid costly delays, errors and miscommunications. Subscribers will be able to efficiently manage and monitor activities - locally or globally - throughout their supply chain. With Fashionchain Sourcing Server and InfoChain Express^®, clients will collaborate with customers and suppliers in real-time for enhanced speed to market, precision and cost savings."

The alliance formed by Avery Dennison and Fashionchain clearly illustrates how soft goods industry manufacturers, distributors and retailers increasingly are using the Internet to exercise greater control over every aspect of their businesses.

Avery Dennison Worldwide Ticketing Services (www.averydennison.com/ticketing) offers global solutions to the retail and apparel industries for variable product identification. It is the world leader in the supply of thermal printing systems and service bureau printing of tag and label products. The Company has ticket manufacturing operations in more than 20 countries and is supplying more than 20,000 retailers, vendors and factories around the world.

Fashionchain, the e-business division of Essentus, Inc., offers a suite of web-based products and services that enable soft goods manufacturers and retailers to collaborate with customers and suppliers in real-time for enhanced speed to market, precision and cost savings.