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Leading Brands, Inc. Announces Results for First Quarter of Fiscal 2002

VANCOUVER, CANADA - July 8, 2002 - LEADING BRANDS, INC. (NASDAQ: LBIX, TSX: LBI), Canada's largest independent, fully integrated premium beverage company, is pleased to announce financial results for the first quarter of its 2002 fiscal year ending February 28, 2003.

Net income for the period was $1,106,000Cdn ($703,000US) or $0.08Cdn ($0.05US) per share versus $1,181,000Cdn ($760,000US) or $0.09Cdn ($0.06US) per share for the first quarter ending May 31, 2002. Revenue for the quarter was $17,977,000Cdn ($11,431,000US) versus $20,126,000Cdn ($12,964,000US) in the prior year.

The quarterly revenue reduction is attributable to the Company's transition of its SoBe® beverage business from distribution to co-pack and the consequently lower revenue per case. This is the last year over year quarter revenue comparison which will be adversely affected by that change.

Leading Brands Chairman & CEO Ralph D. McRae said: "Much of our focus over this past quarter has been on preparation for the launch of our two major new brands: TREK™ Optimized Performance Beverage™ which started its roll out in late June and our PEZ® 100% Juice line which is to follow later this Summer. I am proud that our people were able to maintain focus on the bottom line and increasing our core business with all of the activity swirling around these highly anticipated new brands. Our bottling plants are busier than ever, setting monthly volume records."

Mr. McRae added: "We have also recently signed up a major new customer for sales of bulk water from our 22 acre Mt. Woodside Spring Site just outside Vancouver. In the months of May and June, we sold almost 1,200,000 US gallons of water from that site."

Mr. McRae concluded, "Initial consumer response to TREK™ as measured by sales at the limited number of retail outlets presently carrying the product has greatly exceeded our most optimistic expectations. We are now extending our rollout to a wider market area."

Income Taxes:
In accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, at each balance sheet date the Company is required to reassess any unrecognized future income tax assets and adjust their valuation accordingly. During the quarter the Company determined that, based on current and forecasted earnings trends, it should record future income tax assets in the amount of $576,000Cdn ($366,000US).

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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