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Leading Brands, Inc. Announces Record Earnings For The Third Quarter And Nine Month Period

VANCOUVER, CANADA - January 8, 2002 - Canada's largest independent, fully integrated food and beverage brand management company, is pleased to announce record earnings for its fiscal third quarter ended November 30, 2001.

Revenues for the third quarter were $14.2 million Cdn ($8.9 million US), versus $17.3 million Cdn ($11.4 million US) for the third quarter of fiscal 2001. The reduction in revenues this year versus last was directly attributable to a change in the Company's SoBe relationship from distribution to co-pack. Excluding SoBe, revenue increased 11.1% over the same period last year, as all other areas of the business improved substantially, including profitability of existing and new business. EBITDA for the three-month period was $855,275 Cdn ($537,099 US) versus $238,410 Cdn ($157,502 US) in the same period last year. The Company reported net income for the third quarter of $86,486 Cdn ($54,312 US) or $0.01 Cdn per share, compared to net loss of $736,421 Cdn ($486,504 US) or $0.06 Cdn ($0.04 US) per share in the same period of last year.

Revenues for the first nine months were $51.4 million Cdn ($33.0 million US), versus $62.3 million Cdn ($42.0 million US) for the first nine months of fiscal 2001. EBITDA for the nine-month period was $4.6 million Cdn ($3.0 million US) versus $3.7 million Cdn ($2.5 million US) in the same period last year. Net income for the first nine months of fiscal 2002 was $2.2 million Cdn ($1.4 million US) or $0.16 Cdn ($0.10 US) per share, compared to net income of $873,854 Cdn ($604,911 US) or $0.07 Cdn ($0.05 US) per share in the same period of last year.

Ralph D. McRae, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Leading Brands, stated, "We are extremely pleased to report a profit, despite the third quarter being a seasonally weak period. Importantly, our EBITDA for the third quarter rose over 250 percent year to date, which represents a dramatic improvement in our financial position. Specifically, we have benefited tremendously from our cost controls, employee incentive programs and efficiency initiatives."

Mr. McRae continued, "Looking ahead, we will be well positioned for rapid and profitable growth, as we unveil our highly anticipated new product lines in the weeks ahead. Additionally, we continue to build our new business pipeline and we plan to fully utilize our extensive network of US relationships we have cultivated over the past five years by continually adding new beverage products."

Mr. McRae concluded, "In closing, I would like to wish all of our shareholders the very best for 2002. We at Leading Brands look to the future with boundless optimism."

About Leading Brands, Inc.
Leading Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ:LBIX) is North America’s only fully integrated premium beverage company. The Company’s unique Integrated Distribution System (IDS) ™ offers turnkey, one-stop shopping to food and beverage brand owners, including manufacturing, distribution, sales/marketing and licensing. In addition, Leading Brands produces their own line of beverages such as TrueBlue®, LiteBlue®, TREK® Natural Sports Drinks, NITRO® Energy Drinks, INFINITY® Health Water™, Country Harvest® Juices, and Caesar’s® Cocktails.

Forward Looking Statements
Certain information contained in this press release includes forward-looking statements. Words such as “believe”, “expect,” “will,” or comparable terms, are intended to identify forward-looking statements concerning the Company’s expectations, beliefs, intentions, plans, objectives, future events or performance and other developments. All forward-looking statements included in this press release are based on information available to the Company on the date hereof. Such statements speak only as of the date hereof. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company’s estimations and projections are disclosed in the Company’s securities filings and include, but are not limited to, the following: general economic conditions, weather conditions, changing beverage consumption trends, pricing, availability of raw materials, economic uncertainties (including currency exchange rates), government regulation, managing and maintaining growth, the effect of adverse publicity, litigation, competition and other risk factors described from time to time in securities reports filed by Leading Brands, Inc.

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