Paris, 2 July 1997

LAVAZZA, "Official Coffee of the 1998 World Cup"

On 27 June 1997, Fernand Sastre and Michel Platini, Presidents of the French Organising Committee for the World Cup, and Giuseppe Lavazza, Director of Luigi Lavazza Spa of Turin (Italy), signed a partnership agreement making Lavazza the "Official Coffee of the 1998 World Cup".

For over a century, the Lavazza Group has been putting its considerable know-how into providing the very best for coffee-drinkers, and Giuseppe Lavazza represents the fourth generation in a family whose history is intimately linked with "Italy's favourite coffee".

In Paris, London, Frankfurt, Vienna and New York (where Lavazza has subsidiaries), together with a further thirty countries where the company's products are distributed, Lavazza offers a range for all occasions and budgets: coffee in the home, in the commercial sector (cafés, hotels, restaurants and other set-ups), and now in the workplace, thanks to its "Espresso Point Lavazza" machines with their easy-to-use capsules.

For Lavazza, teaming up with FRANCE 98 provides an excellent opportunity to develop its reputation world-wide. A reputation already solidly established in Italy, a country where football is played at the very highest level, and where 3 out of 4 Italians drink Lavazza coffee regularly.

With the signing of this agreement, Lavazza becomes the sixth company to join the Official 1998 World Cup Products and Services group after Michelin, Total, Cyanamid, Duracell and CPW/Nestlé Céréales.