CHICAGO, IL, June 6, 2007 -- Information Resources, Inc. (IRI), the world’s leading global provider of consumer, shopper, and retail market intelligence and insights for the consumer packaged goods (CPG), healthcare and retail industries, today announced that Fred’s Inc., one of the nation’s largest discount retail chains, is the latest retail client to utilize its Apollo space planning software suite to drive overall sales and profit improvements and add efficiency to its supply chain process.

“We are constantly looking for new ways to better serve our unique customers’ needs and shopping behaviors,” says John D. Reier, president of Fred’s Inc. “The Apollo solutions from IRI will enable us to partner with our suppliers and develop planograms specific to store clusters. This ultimately means that we can select the optimal store layout, item selection and shelf placement for each of our stores and meet the demands of our customers.”

Apollo Total Store is a database-driven desktop software product that allows users to analyze store layouts and to plan the use of space in their stores at the macro level. The software will help Fred’s better understand the product and category performance within the aisles and departments of specific stores. It will also enable them to analyze how specific sections of the store are merchandised down to the shelf level, which will lead to a better picture of what is happening in each Fred’s store.

Fred’s will also be able to analyze space performance, create planograms, visualize category and assortment strategies, and manage large planogram databases with Apollo Professional. The software’s 3-D planogram viewing and merchandising brings a new realism to shelf decisions and also optimizes sales and return on inventory investment.

“These Apollo solutions will empower Fred’s to partner with their vendors and improve category performance,” says IRI Retail Solutions and Strategic Consulting President Thom Blischok. “This collaboration will help improve store merchandising and space allocation, so that they can achieve breakthrough results.”

About Fred’s Inc.

Fred's Inc. operates 701 discount general merchandise stores, including 24 franchised Fred's stores in the southeastern United States. For more information about the Company, visit Fred’s web site at www.fredsinc.com.

About Information Resources, Inc.

IRI is the world’s leading provider of consumer, shopper, and retail market intelligence and insights supporting 95 percent of the FORTUNE Global 500 consumer packaged goods (CPG), retail and healthcare companies. Only IRI offers the unique combination of integrated market information, automated and predictive analytics, innovative enabling technologies, and domain expertise. With IRI, leading retailers and manufacturers are able to quickly discover breakthrough insights driving smarter decisions and actions across the enterprise for breakthrough results. Companies around the world depend on IRI for improved productivity, stronger brands, and dramatic revenue growth. For more information, visit http://us.infores.com.

Contacts 
IRI
John McIndoe, 312-474-3862
john.mcindoe@infores.com
Fax: 312-474-2512