Southern Wine & Spirits Selects Penske for Fleet Maintenance

READING, Pa., Jan. 20, 2011 – Penske Truck Leasing today announced it was selected as the primary provider of contract commercial truck fleet maintenance services by Southern Wine & Spirits of America, Inc., the nation's largest wine and spirits distributor.

"At Southern, we are focused on maximizing service while running as efficiently as possible," stated Larry Sullivan, Southern Vice President of Supply Chain Services. "Our national maintenance agreement with Penske is reflective of our drive for service excellence, while consolidating our fleet maintenance program to our vendor of choice from Maui to Miami.

"With our new partnership with Penske we will be afforded unparalleled visibility into our fleet operations which will, in turn, deliver continued service excellence to our 180,000 retail customers and supplier partners," Sullivan said.

Penske will maintain Southern Wine & Spirits' expansive fleet consisting of nearly 2,000 heavy-duty tractors, trailers and medium-duty trucks nationwide. These vehicles are at the heart of Southern's mission of providing service excellence to their nationwide retail customers.

"We're pleased to be working with Southern Wine & Spirits," said Penske's John Crockett, Senior Vice President of Southeast Operations. "The many similarities in our business philosophies and organizational culture help to make this initiative a success. While we've had a long-standing relationship with Southern in some parts of the country for many years, only with this most recent program are we able to maximize the benefits of a ‘one-maintenance-provider' solution for them nationally. We believe that as a result of this agreement, Southern will realize the highest degree of reliability, service and compliance possible."

Southern Wine & Spirits of America, Inc. is the nation's largest wine and spirits distributor with operations in 33 markets. The multi-state distributor currently operates in: Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Kentucky, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia—as well as the additional seven states of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Utah through the Southern-Odom/Spirits West partnership. In addition, Southern has a presence in Maryland and the District of Columbia through a joint venture with F.P. Winner Wine & Spirits as well as a joint venture operation in Minnesota with J.J. Taylor Distributing Company. Southern also holds operating licenses and permits in Nebraska and Texas. On a national basis, Southern Wine & Spirits of America, Inc. employs more than 11,000 team members. For more information, see: http://www.southernwine.com.

Penske Truck Leasing Co., L.P., headquartered in Reading, Pa., is a joint venture of Penske Corporation, Penske Automotive Group and General Electric. A leading global transportation services provider, Penske operates more than 200,000 vehicles and serves customers from more than 1,000 locations in North America, South America, Europe and Asia. Product lines include full-service truck leasing, contract maintenance, commercial and consumer truck rentals, used truck sales, transportation and warehousing management, and supply chain management solutions. Visit www.GoPenske.com to learn more about the company and its products and services.