FORTUNE BRANDS reafirms 2009 earnings target

New York, NY. - Fortune Brands, Inc. (NYSE: FO), the company behind leading consumer brands including Jim Beam, Titleist and Moen, today reaffirmed its full-year 2009 targets for both earnings and free cash flow.

In remarks prepared for delivery today at the JP Morgan Diversified Industries Conference, Fortune Brands chairman and chief executive officer Bruce Carbonari said, “While consumers remain very cautious and the U.S. housing market remains challenged, we’re encouraged by improvements in key economic measures, including consumer confidence and sales of new and existing homes. Additionally, our third quarter order patterns are tracking to our expectations and we’re continuing to gain share in key product categories. Taken together, these factors enhance our confidence that we’ll achieve our full-year earnings target for diluted EPS before charges/gains to be in the range of $2.00 to $2.30.”

The company also reaffirmed its expectation to generate free cash flow for 2009 in the range of $400 million after dividends and net capital expenditures.

Fortune Brands plans to report results for the third quarter of 2009 on October 23rd.