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UPS Starts Celebration of 100th Birthday in New Orleans


WEBWIRE

CEO Thanks Workers for Performance After Katrina

NEW ORLEANS, Jan. 26, 2007 - The chairman and CEO of UPS (NYSE: UPS) today offered public as well as private thanks to employees here for embodying the spirit of the company’s founder in quickly restoring service after Hurricane Katrina.

"At great personal sacrifice, UPS drivers and sorters and managers stepped into a huge void in a devastated city and in less than three weeks, restored package delivery, freight and supply chain services" said Mike Eskew, UPS’s chairman and CEO. "Most of these employees did not have homes or even families nearby, and yet their dedication to customers and their city was such that they came back to work and restored service"

"Jim Casey founded this company in 1907 with an all-consuming commitment to customer service" Eskew continued. "We honor that legacy here today by saluting our people in New Orleans for what they did after Katrina and continue to do today"

Eskew met with several hundred employees as well as customers and dignitaries here today at the site of UPS’s newly rebuilt New Orleans package hub. The company reinvested $7.6 million in the facility after it was completely flooded when the levees broke. All told, some 20 package hubs and centers throughout the region suffered damage during Katrina and had to be repaired at a total cost of $8.3 million.

UPS is celebrating its 100th birthday throughout 2007, primarily through employee events around the world. The celebration in more than 55 U.S. cities will revolve around the arrival of a mobile Centennial exhibit, built inside large tractor-trailers. In New Orleans, Eskew opened the exhibit for the first time and guided employees and customers through the displays.

"We are proud of our heritage, but the focus of this celebration is not our history" the CEO added. "This Centennial is meant to mark the start of UPS’s next 100 years and the bright future that we are pursuing right now"

UPS was founded in Seattle as a messenger service in 1907 by a 19-year-old teenager who borrowed $100. Over the subsequent 100 years, much of it guided by founder Jim Casey, UPS transformed itself into a department store delivery service; a common carrier offering package delivery service throughout the United States; an international package delivery service with its own airline and now, a trusted business partner that literally enables commerce for its customers by synchronizing the flow of goods, information and money.

Today, UPS employs more than 427,000 people; operates the world’s largest package delivery network; operates the planet’s eighth-largest airline; utilizes almost 92,000 vehicles, and offers an ever-expanding array of supply chain services.

"We have transformed this organization dramatically, from a company primarily focused on package delivery in the United States to a broader provider of transportation-based and supply chain services" Eskew concluded. "UPS today stands as a critical pipeline for global economic activity"

UPS, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2007, is the world’s largest package delivery company and a global leader in supply chain services, offering an extensive range of options for synchronizing the movement of goods, information and funds. Headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., UPS serves more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. UPS’s stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange (UPS) and the company can be found on the Web at UPS.com. To get UPS news direct, visit pressroom.ups.com/RSS.



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