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Ralph D. McRae
Chairman and CEO
Leading Brands, Inc.
Toll Free: 1-800-729-2746 ext. 238
[email protected]

LEADING BRANDS EXPANDS VIRGIN DRINKS TERRITORY
Triples Potential Market for Product Line
Unique Marketing And Packaging Attracts 10-16 Year Olds Target Market
Line Extension Planned Late 2000

VANCOUVER, Canada, -- August 29, 2000-Leading Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ: LBIX), Canada's largest independent, fully integrated food and beverage brand management company, today announced that it has expanded its territory from Western Canada to include the Canadian Provinces of Ontario and Quebec as the master franchisee of Virgin Drinksâ. This more than triples the Company's potential market for these products.

Virgin Drinksâ is available in cola, several distinctive flavors and, especially, colors (orange, pink, green, gold, and blue). These beverages and the unique Cur-V Ò bottle in which they are bottled, are owned by Richard Branson and the Virgin group of companies. These products have met with extraordinary success in the United Kingdom and many countries in Europe and Asia. The unique package coupled with a youth oriented marketing campaign has helped Leading Brands attract its target market of 10-16 year olds. Currently, Leading Brands is preparing for a Virgin flavour extension for release this fall, and a brand extension in December 2000.

To further reach its target market of pre-teens to young teens, Leading Brands is engaged in cross marketing with Virgin Mega Stores, V-2 Records and BBC-Canada Radio Programming. These relationships directly focus the marketing effort on the youth oriented market.

Leading Brands Chairman, President and CEO Ralph McRae stated, "We are very proud of our expanding relationship with Virgin. The Virgin Group is an innovative specialist at building brand recognition. Working with Virgin Group in Canada, we have found them to be supportive partners and look forward to their continued support on this expansion and other future ventures. Our cross marketing programs with Virgin Mega Stores, V-2 Records and BBC-Canada Radio, give us a distinct advantage in effectively reaching our target market. We look forward to spreading our early success in Western Canada to the rest of the Country."

About Leading Brands, Inc.:

Headquartered in Richmond, B.C., Canada, Leading Brands, Inc. is the largest independent food and beverage integrated brand management company in Canada. The Company's unique Integrated Distribution System (IDS) offers turnkey, one-stop shopping to food and beverage brand owners. Its Quick.com, Inc. subsidiary is building a consumer home replenishment system for the Internet economy.

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NOTE: Any statements that are not historical facts contained in this release are forward-looking statements. It is possible that the assumptions made by management for purposes of such statements may not materialize. Actual results may differ materially from those projected or implied in any forward-looking statements. Such statements may involve risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to those relating to product demand, pricing, market acceptance, the effect of economic conditions, including currency fluctuations, intellectual property rights, and the outcome of competitive products, risks in product development, the results of financing effort, the ability to complete transactions, and other risks identified in this release and the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings.