Richard Budd, chairman of the board and chief executive officer (CEO), AgriBioTech Inc., Thursday announced that the company's restructuring plan associated with the integration of ABT's 34 acquired companies has been approved and that the company is on target to achieve profitability in FY2000, which begins Thursday.

Wednesday, the ABT Board of Directors approved the company's restructuring plan, which includes closing 33 facilities and eliminating over 300 positions. Board approval of the restructuring plan allows ABT to accrue for the majority of the restructuring charges associated
with the integration in the company's fiscal year 1999 (FY1999).

The cost savings resulting from the integration plan are expected to exceed $14.0 million on an
annualized basis. Management believes that with this level of reduced expenses, ABT will be
profitable in FY2000 given expected revenue and gross margins.

"This board action is important for ABT because we can now put the integration behind us, ''
said Budd. "We are excited about the new organization that has emerged from the integration
effort, and thank the scores of dedicated employees who worked on it,'' continued Budd.
"Starting today, we will have a unified business that we believe is uniquely suited to serving the
needs of our various customer groups.''

The majority of the redundant facilities closings and headcount reductions have already taken
place. The new, integrated organization features business units built around and designed to
support the unique needs of the company's different customer groups.

ABT will record the large majority of the restructuring and other non-recurring special charges
related to the integration in the fourth quarter of FY1999 results. These charges are estimated to
be in the middle of the previously announced range of $5.0 million to $15.0 million. The company is currently completing property appraisals that will allow the final amounts of the charges to be determined.

Certain special charges related to the restructuring, for example personnel relocation costs and
machinery relocation, estimated at less than $2.0 million, will be recognized in the first half of
FY2000. ABT is assessing goodwill impairment associated with the restructuring but has not yet
determined the amount of impairment, if any.

In addition to the FY1999 restructuring and other non-recurring special charges, ABT will also
incur additional bad debt and inventory reserves in the fourth quarter of FY1999 associated with the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by a major customer (Hechinger Co.) and inventory redundancy relating to integration and product line consolidation.

These additional reserves will not be included in the special charges. As a result of these reserves, the extraordinary loss on the early sub-debt redemption, and other redundant operating costs, ABT will not break even on the pre-tax, profit line for the second half of FY1999 as forecast in March 1999.

Budd concluded by saying, "Looking ahead, we now have the ability to focus on the fundamentals of running a profitable business, including investing in and building our R&D program so that we can achieve our long-term business objective. Our long-term business objective is to build a high-value, proprietary seed business that benefits and rewards our customers, employees and shareholders.''

AgriBioTech is a vertically integrated, full-service seed company specializing in the forage and
turfgrass seed sector, complete with research and development of proprietary seed varieties, seed processing plants and a national and international distribution and sales network. ABT's vision is to lead the turf and forage seed industry in discovering its value potential.

Company news release
N1907