Central Garden & Pet Selects Acorn Systems

Acorn Systems, the preeminent resource for profitability and cost management solutions, and Central Garden & Pet Company (NASDAQ:CENT), a leading provider of Lawn and Garden and Pet supplies, today jointly announced the selection of Acorn Performance Analyzer. After an evaluation of leading profitability systems, Central Garden & Pet selected Acorn Systems because of its expertise in profitability management and their ability to provide a flexible, scalable and elegant platform for customer and item profitability analytics.

“The scale and complexity of our business means that we need to have a clear understanding of our true profitability to inform strategic decisions related to pricing, SKU management, and overall business performance,” said John Casella, Chief Information Officer, Central Garden & Pet. “Acorn enables us to identify the opportunities and required actions within our business units to maximize our financial results.”

Acorn’s trademarked technology and proven methodology will build off of Central Garden & Pet’s own systems to create new and actionable intelligence. By providing fresh insight into the true net profit of a business in a detailed and multidimensional way, Acorn’s solutions leverage a company’s existing IT infrastructure to draw data directly from existing operational and financial systems and current transaction reports.

“With over 50,000 products, 17,000 customers and 60,000 ship-to locations, Central Garden & Pet needed a performance management system that could help the company effectively analyze this scope of data without overburdening its resources,” said J. Alex Fernandez, President and Chief Operating Officer, Acorn. “We’re excited to help Central Garden & Pet successfully execute on one of their top strategic initiatives and contribute to their on-going leadership in the Pet and Garden supplies marketplace.”

About Acorn

Acorn (www.acornsys.com) is the leading provider of profit improvement solutions for growing revenues profitably, reducing costs, and improving operational efficiencies. Over the past 12 years, Acorn has delivered profit improvement results for Global 2000 companies in the Financial Services, Retail, Consumer Products, Manufacturing, Distribution, Logistics and Services sectors. Utilizing a trademarked technology and proven methodology, Acorn reveals profit opportunities across the enterprise, including customers, channels, segments, products, vendors, and processes. Acorn’s unique approach enables clients to make continuous, fact-based decisions to improve their bottom line and Earnings per Share (EPS), yielding over $5 billion in profit improvements and creating billions in new shareholder value.

About Central Garden & Pet

Central Garden & Pet Company is a leading innovator, marketer and producer of quality branded products for the lawn & garden and pet supplies markets. Committed to new product innovation, our products are sold to specialty independent and mass retailers in the following categories: Lawn & Garden: Grass seed including the brands PENNINGTON(R) and THE REBELS(TM); wild bird feed and the brands PENNINGTON(R) and KAYTEE(R); weed and insect control and the brands AMDRO(R), SEVIN(R), IRONITE(R) and Over 'N Out and; decorative outdoor patio products and the brands NORCAL(R), NEW ENGLAND POTTERY(R) and MATTHEWS FOUR SEASONS(TM). We also provide a host of other regional and application-specific garden brands and supplies. Pet categories include: Animal health and the brands ADAMS(TM) and ZODIAC(R); aquatics and reptile and the brands OCEANIC(R), AQUEON(TM) and RZILLA(TM); bird & small animal and the brands KAYTEE(R), SUPER PET(R) and CRITTER TRAIL(R); dog & cat and the brands TFH(TM) / NYLABONE(R), FOUR PAWS(R), PINNACLE(R) and Avoderm and; equine and the brands FARNAM(R), BRONCO(R) and SUPER MASK(R). We also provide a host of other application-specific pet brands and supplies. Central Garden & Pet is based in Walnut Creek, California, and has approximately 5,000 employees, primarily in North America and Europe. For additional information on Central Garden & Pet, including access to the Company's SEC filings, please visit the Company's website at http://www.central.com/.