Willys enters into collaboration with Swedish Society for Nature Conservation

Willys enters into collaboration with Swedish Society for Nature Conservation

Willys, Sweden's leading discount grocery chain, is entering into a strategic
environmental collaboration with the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation
(SSNC) - an undertaking that will include joint activities and campaigns, among
other things. In conjunction with this, Willys is also filing an application to
ecolabel all 150 stores in the chain with the Bra Miljöval ("Good Environmental
Choice") label.

“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