Connors / Bumble Bee Adjusts 2nd Half Year Outlook Downwardsff

Connors Bros. Income Fund North America’s largest branded seafood company provided information this week regarding the impact of Hurricane Katrina on its business, and the outlook for the second half of fiscal year 2005. The company indicated that it is revising its 2005 second half pro forma Adjusted EBITDA forecast downward to $47 - $49 million from its previous estimate of $53 - $55 million. The revised forecast results in a 2005 full year pro forma.

Adjusted EBITDA outlook of $86 - $88 million, which would be down 6% - 8% versus prior year. Distributions of C$1.50/unit will not be affected although the distributable cash payout ratio is expected to increase to the low to mid 90's for the full year.

Connors cited the impact of Hurricane Katrina, rising fuel costs, and low sardine catches as the primary drivers of the lower projection. The Company does not believe the negative impact of these events will carry over into 2006 as it has recently taken price increases across several seafood categories in response to high fish and other raw material costs. The positive impact of the price increase, a return of the sardine catch to more normal levels, and factory integration synergies are projected to offset the cost effect of the above events in 2006.

Connors owns and operates a shrimp canning factory in the St. Bernard Parish area of New Orleans, which was hard hit by Hurricane Katrina on August 29. Mr. Chris Lischewski, President and CEO of Connors Bros., Ltd. commented “We are happy to report that we have been in touch with almost all of our management team from the factory, and are proud of their heroic efforts in the aftermath of the storm. We have located roughly half of our 150 employees and are continuing to search for others in order to provide and assist them in finding food and shelter. The factory did sustain considerable damage, and was under more than 10 feet of water following the storm. We are working with our insurance adjusters to assess the damage, and to file a claim to recover our losses. We believe we have adequate insurance coverage to help mitigate any material losses associated with this factory and the rest of our affected business. In the meantime, we expect to experience supply interruptions to our customers and are working to secure alternative sources of supply to meet their needs. Additionally, our entire company continues to participate in the relief effort through the contribution and distribution of canned food products, water, and other essentials to the region and to our employees.”

Mr. Lischewski continued “The full impact of Hurricane Katrina on our business results remains uncertain, but we do know that in addition to supply interruptions we are experiencing a negative impact on fuel prices which are affecting our freight costs, nationally. In addition, the hurricane has disrupted some of our raw material supplies into our Augusta, Georgia facility and with the diversion of some of our key managers to assist in the recovery efforts in the Gulf, we are experiencing a further delay in the manufacturing synergies expected at this factory.”

”Un-related to Katrina, we continue to struggle with herring supplies out of the Bay of Fundy for our sardine canning facilities in Blacks Harbor, New Brunswick and Prospect Harbor, Maine. As a result, we are incurring negative factory cost absorption and lower sardine shipments. We do expect the sardine catch to return to normal next year after the conservative total allowable catch (TAC) this year, which should allow the biomass to expand significantly for the 2006 harvest.”

”A number of these issues, with the exception of Hurricane Katrina, were factored into our second half estimates at the time of our Q2 earnings release. However, it now appears that several of these negative factors are impacting us more significantly than we had estimated, which combined with the impact of Hurricane Katrina, notably increases the magnitude of the downside.”

”While these events will have a negative impact on our second half results, we do not believe they represent any long-term change in our business model. We remain confident in our ability to maintain our current distribution level, although we expect the full-year payout ratio to be in the low to mid 90's driven by the lower level of pro forma Adjusted EBITDA. The recent price increase taken to offset high fish and other raw material costs, a return of the sardine catch to more normal levels, and factory integration synergies will all benefit our results in 2006.”

The company offers a full line of canned tuna, salmon, sardine and specialty seafood products, marketed under leading brands including Clover Leaf(R), Bumble Bee(R), Brunswick(R), Snow's(R) and Beach Cliff(R), as well as a full-line of canned chicken and canned meat products in the U.S. under the Castleberry's(R), Sweet Sue(R), and Bryan(R) brand names.