Heinz tops all food manufacturers in the American Customer Satisfaction Index^TM for 13th Consecutive Year

H.J. Heinz Company (NYSE: HNZ) is pleased to announce that the Company ranked number-one in overall customer satisfaction among food manufacturers in the 2012 American Customer Satisfaction Index™ (ACSI). Heinz led food manufacturers for the 13th consecutive year.

Heinz has earned the ACSI’s top ranking among food manufacturers every year since 2000. This year, Heinz achieved an overall customer satisfaction score of 89, which measured its performance in categories including quality, value, consumer loyalty and consumer expectations. The Company’s industry-leading score was 6 points higher than the average for the packaged foods sector. The ACSI scores and rankings are based on customer evaluations of the quality of products and services available to household consumers in the United States.

Commenting on this year’s number-one ranking, Heinz Chairman, President and CEO William R. Johnson said, “The enduring success of our iconic brand reflects our singular dedication to making exceptional products that consistently satisfy consumers, led by Heinz® Ketchup. Heinz is a perennial leader in our industry because we focus everyday on meeting the consumer’s appetite for great-tasting premium quality foods, convenience and importantly, value.”

ACSI Founder Claes Fornell said, “Year after year, Heinz is an industry leader with high ACSI scores and a winning recipe for building consumer loyalty and satisfaction. This year’s results confirm once again that Heinz has earned a stellar reputation for consistently manufacturing foods that meet or exceed consumer expectations for quality and value.”

About ACSI

The American Customer Satisfaction Index is a national economic indicator of customer evaluations of the quality of products and services available to household consumers in the United States. Data from interviews with approximately 70,000 customers annually are used as inputs into an econometric model to measure satisfaction with more than 225 companies in 47 industries and 10 economic sectors, along with over 200 services, programs, and websites of approximately 130 federal government agencies.

First published in October 1994, the Index was founded at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and is produced by ACSI LLC. ACSI results are released on a monthly basis, with all measures reported using a 0 to 100 scale. ACSI data have proven to be strongly related to a number of essential indicators of micro and macroeconomic performance. For example, firms with higher levels of customer satisfaction tend to have higher earnings and stock returns relative to competitors. Stock portfolios based on companies that show strong performance in ACSI deliver excess returns in up markets as well as down markets. At the macro level, customer satisfaction has been shown to be predictive of both consumer spending and gross domestic product growth.