For immediate release FRIDAY, JAN. 23, 2004

Contact: Brian Furnish
(502) 564-0290

Elizabethtown, KY—More than 30,000 cans of Ski left an Elizabethtown warehouse for Cuba this morning, the first of three international shipments by a soft drink bottler whose first customers were in western Kentucky in 1926.

The shipment of 12-ounce cans of Ski and Diet Ski resulted from a trade agreement reached by the Kentucky Department of Agriculture and Cuba. Cuba has promised to buy $7 million of processed foods, meats, tobacco, tobacco products, and wood products from Kentucky producers.

“This is a great accomplishment for a small company like ours,” said John Primm, president of J. Primm & Associates, who brokered the deal for Double Cola USA, Ski’s parent company, and traveled to Cuba with Department of Agriculture officials.

As forklifts loaded the cases on a truck headed to the shipping port at Gulfport, Miss., Primm credited the Kentucky Department of Agriculture for its work to promote international trade and help Kentucky producers and companies. “This will be our first taste of exporting, and we hope the people of Cuba will develop the same taste for Ski that our Kentucky and U.S. customers already have,” Primm said.

Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer said he personally would continue to focus on new markets that benefit all of Kentucky. “This is the beginning of what I hope will be a new era of opportunity for Kentucky farmers, producers and businesses.”

Farmer announced that other Kentucky companies have begun shipping to Cuba or are about to close deals. “Cuba imports more than $1 billion worth of food,” Farmer said. “Kentucky should become an extremely attractive market to Cuba because of the price and quality of our products and because of how close we are for shipping.” Farmer said Cuba can save 15 to 20 percent on shipping alone, compared to other sources of food and food products.

“It is vital that Kentucky producers continue to find new markets for their products and Cuba presents a major opportunity,” Farmer said.

Ski is scheduled to send two more shipments – another 1,600 cases each -- from Cardinal Beverage in Elizabethtown to Alimport in Havana, Cuba, according to Primm. Cuba is receiving Ski and Diet Ski, both fruit-based soft drinks containing real orange and lemon juice.

Western Kentuckians were the first to taste Ski in 1926 when the Greensburg Bottling Co. started as a family operation that eventually expanded regionally and then nationally, as part of a Double Cola franchise.

The company has shipped internationally before but not as part of a trade agreement – to loyal Kentucky customers who ordered cases delivered to them while they were serving in the armed forces in Saudi Arabia and Bosnia.

Cubans got their first taste of Ski, leading to the major order, when Primm provided samples at an exhibit booth in Havana while traveling with Kentucky Department of Agriculture officials. “The two largest lines were for Wrigley Spearmint gum and Ski,” Primm said. “Security finally made us stop because the lines to get our samples were getting so long.”

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