McCORMICK & COMPANY  2008 ANNUAL REPORT

We are driving growth through strong global brands, innovative new products and acquisitions.  Our portfolio of brands enjoys strong consumer loyalty around the world, and we work diligently to earn that loyalty every day by focusing on solving our consumers' culinary needs in practical and flavorful ways.       To build upon the power of our brands, we expanded our proven marketing efforts - including print ads and sampling programs - by 13% in 2008.

In the U.S., for example, we applied additional marketing support behind the Simply Asia® line, Grill Mates spices and grinders and other products that offer high growth potential but still have low household penetration rates. Likewise, in Europe, we moved to a more common advertising platform to allow us to better leverage our marketing expenditures. Given the particularly high returns for interactive media, we relaunched our U.S. consumer website and added two new niche websites.   continued>>