Hy-Vee Chinese Express Recognized for Excellence

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa, Feb. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Hy-Vee's Chinese Express, the company's fastest-growing and most popular dining service, has been named to the Top 100 Chinese Restaurants/Chains in the United States. It is the fourth year in a row the company has been so honored.

Chinese Restaurant News sponsors the annual lists that recognize the top 100 restaurants in 10 categories which include top regional cuisines, take-outs, buffets, rising stars, metro favorites and more. Hy-Vee was honored in the overall excellence category, which is determined by high scores in cuisine, decor and atmosphere, service and cleanliness. This year restaurants were evaluated in part by a mystery diner who made anonymous visits and evaluations of each nominee. Customer votes also played a part in the final results. The awards were presented during a special ceremony at the Cultural Food New York event held recently in New York City.

"Hy-Vee's Chinese food service is successful because we have more than 400 highly trained Chinese chefs and countless dedicated helpful servers, who are constantly looking for ways to improve our customer service and food offerings," said Greg Frampton, assistant vice president of food service.

There is fresh Chinese food in 125 of Hy-Vee's 197 supermarkets. Customers can eat in, take out or purchase pre-packaged meals from a food case. Currently the best sellers are Sesame Chicken, General's Chicken, fresh crab rangoon and egg rolls.

"Hy-Vee has also taken steps to meet the needs of customers who are making healthy lifestyle changes by preparing all dishes with zero trans fat frying oil, and without MSG," said Frampton.

According to Chinese Restaurant News, there are now more than 43,000 Chinese restaurants in America, more than McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's combined. It is an industry with over $17.5 billion in annual sales.

Hy-Vee, Inc. is an employee-owned corporation operating 222 retail stores in seven Midwestern states. For 2007 the company recorded total sales of $5.6 billion, ranking it among the top 30 supermarket chains and the top 50 private companies in the United States.

Hy-Vee, Inc.

CONTACT: Chris Friesleben, Director, Communications of Hy-Vee, Inc.,
+1-515-267-2941, Cell, +1-515-250-3929, cfriesleben@hy-vee.com

Web site: http://www.hy-vee.com/