• Results Achieve Targeted Earnings Range
  

• Sales Gains for Jim Beam, Maker's Mark, Courvoisier, Titleist and Master Lock Benefit Results
  
• Significant Progress in Quarter Positioning Spirits Business for Future Growth

Deerfield, Illinois, October 24, 2008 - Fortune Brands, Inc. (NYSE: FO), the company behind leading consumer brands including Jim Beam, Titleist and Moen, today reported results for the third quarter of 2008. In an increasingly challenging economic environment, sales growth for brands including Jim Beam, Maker's Mark, Courvoisier, Titleist and Master Lock, plus productivity initiatives and cost controls, helped the company deliver results within its previously announced earnings target range. Reflecting the benefit of a net gain due to previously announced one-time items, reported earnings per diluted share increased 66% to $2.21 for the quarter. Excluding one-time items, diluted EPS from continuing operations was $1.11, down 17%. Net sales were off 10% at $1.92 billion.

"Despite the adverse impact of the sustained U.S. housing correction, the global credit crisis, and weakening consumer confidence, we delivered on our third-quarter earnings target and also made significant progress positioning Fortune Brands for future growth," said Bruce Carbonari, chairman and chief executive officer of Fortune Brands.

Spirits results in the quarter benefited from the timing of shipments in the United States, higher pricing, and favorable product mix, partly offset by the continued adverse impact of the excise tax increase in Australia on ready-to-drink spirits products. Despite softer-than-anticipated conditions in the home products market, Moen, Master Lock and the company's cabinetry brands continued to gain share. Double-digit sales gains for the company's golf brands in key Asian markets partly offset soft U.S. and European demand for golf products.

"As we carefully manage through the current environment, we remain focused on managing our costs, generating cash flow and maintaining a strong balance sheet," Carbonari said. "We're continuing to contain costs and protect operating margins through productivity initiatives and by aligning manufacturing capacity with marketplace conditions, including further capacity reductions in home products."

"At the same time, our teams across Fortune Brands remain focused on outperforming our markets, and we believe challenging times provide opportunities to gain competitive advantage and win profitable market share. To capitalize on these opportunities in the current environment, we're very carefully targeting investments to build our brands through development of new products, new markets and expanded customer relationships. These initiatives are paying off in several ways. For example, we're driving revenue growth for our major premium spirits brands that outpaces case volume growth, we're fueling double-digit growth in key emerging markets for brands in each of our businesses, and we've developed a tremendous lineup of new golf products."

"In the third quarter, we also made significant progress to proactively position Fortune Brands for future growth," Carbonari continued. "Most notably, we efficiently unwound our spirits partnership with V&S Group on very favorable terms: We repurchased the minority interest in our spirits business at an attractive valuation; we received a
$230 million pre-tax payment from Pernod Ricard to accelerate the end of our U.S. distribution joint venture with the V&S brands; we established our new spirits sales and distribution platform in the U.S. and globally; and we acquired Cruzan Rum at an attractive price, giving us an excellent position in a growing premium category. Taken together, these moves enable our highly profitable spirits business to look to the future with more clarity, a simpler sales structure, and prospects for strong long-term growth."

For the third quarter of 2008:

• Net income was $335.9 million, or $2.21 per diluted share, up 66% from $1.33 per share in the year-ago quarter.
  

• Comparisons were impacted by the following items: a gain of $0.94 per diluted share related to the early termination of the U.S. spirits distribution joint venture with V&S Group; a gain of $0.29 per diluted share to recognize the remaining unamortized gain from V&S's initial investment in the joint venture; a charge of $0.17 per diluted share to write down the value of the company's investment in the Maxxium international joint venture; restructuring and restructuring-related items amounting to $0.16 per diluted share; and income from discontinued operations of $0.20 per diluted share.
  
• Excluding one-time items in both the current and prior-year periods, diluted EPS before charges/gains from continuing operations was $1.11, down 17% from $1.34 in the year-ago quarter.
  
• These results were within the company's target range for diluted EPS before charges/gains to be down at a mid-teens-to-mid-20s percentage rate.
  
• Net sales from continuing operations were $1.92 billion, down 10%.
  
• On a comparable basis, excluding excise taxes and foreign exchange, total net sales would have been down 12%.
  
• Operating income was $254.8 million.
  
• Return on equity before charges/gains was 12%.
  
• Return on invested capital before charges/gains was 8%.
  
• "We're pleased that during the third quarter we increased the dividend 5%, the 12th consecutive annual increase since we began trading as Fortune Brands," Carbonari added.

"It's clear the current economic environment will present near-term challenges as consumers navigate the global credit crisis and as the U.S. housing correction continues," Carbonari said. "Consumers are taking a very cautious approach, especially to big-ticket discretionary purchases such as major remodeling projects. Even so, we'll benefit from the fact that nearly 60% of our profits now come from the relatively stable distilled spirits category. We have powerful brands, great new products in the marketplace, and proactive share-gain and productivity initiatives across categories that will continue to serve us well in this environment.

"In the fourth quarter, results for our spirits business will reflect the one-time impact of a strategic initiative related to building our new route to market in the U.S. Associated with the enhanced U.S. sales organization established earlier this month, our spirits business is introducing a new distributor partnership program to further improve our service and add value for our distributors. As part of this program, we're implementing a new inventory management model that will rely on leaner and more consistent U.S. distributor inventory levels going forward. While lower year-over-year distributor inventories will result in a one-time adverse operating income comparison in the fourth quarter, we believe supporting faster inventory turns for our U.S. distributor partners creates valuable efficiencies for them and for us, and will further improve our competitive position in our largest market.

"Given that the current economic environment has become more challenging and uncertain than anyone had anticipated, we are approaching our earnings targets with caution," Carbonari said. "For the fourth quarter, reflecting the economic environment and the impact of our spirits initiatives, we're targeting earnings per share before charges/gains to be down at a low-30s-to-high-40s percentage rate versus $1.39 a year ago. Nearly half of the anticipated fourth-quarter decline is attributable to the Australia RTD tax issue and our spirits route-to-market initiatives. For the full year, we are now targeting 2008 results to be down at a high-teens-to-mid-20s percentage rate compared to $5.06 in 2007."

Reflecting the benefit of the $142 million after-tax payment from Pernod Ricard, the company also announced that it is now targeting free cash flow for 2008 to be in the range of $475-550 million after dividends and capital expenditures.

"As we look ahead, although near-term challenges will carry into 2009, we feel very good about our ability to manage through this environment and very positive about Fortune Brands' long-term prospects," Carbonari continued. "Our long-term confidence is underscored by several important strengths: We have powerful consumer brands, we compete in consumer categories with very attractive long-term fundamentals, we
generate strong cash flow, and we're undertaking important initiatives to outperform our categories and position the company for strong performance over the long haul."

About Fortune Brands

Fortune Brands, Inc. is a leading consumer brands company with annual sales exceeding $8 billion. Its operating companies have premier brands and leading market positions in distilled spirits, home and hardware, and golf products. Beam Global Spirits & Wine, Inc. is the company's premium spirits business. Major spirits brands include Jim Beam and Maker's Mark bourbon, Sauza tequila, Canadian Club whisky, Courvoisier cognac, Cruzan rum, Teacher's and Laphroaig Scotch, and DeKuyper cordials. Home and hardware brands include Moen faucets, Aristokraft, Omega, Diamond and Kitchen Craft cabinetry, Therma-Tru door systems, Simonton windows, Master Lock padlocks and Waterloo tool storage sold by units of Fortune Brands Home & Hardware LLC. Acushnet Company's golf brands include Titleist, Cobra and FootJoy. Fortune Brands, headquartered in Deerfield, Illinois, is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol FO and is included in the S&P 500 Index, the MSCI World Index and the Ocean Tomo 300™ Patent Index.

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Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains statements relating to future results, which are forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Readers are cautioned that these forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof, and the company does not assume any obligation to update, amend or clarify them to reflect events, new information or circumstances occurring after the date of this release. Actual results may differ materially from those projected as a result of certain risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to: competitive market pressures (including pricing pressures); consolidation of trade customers; successful development of new products and processes; ability to secure and maintain rights to intellectual property; risks pertaining to strategic acquisitions and joint ventures, including the potential financial effects and performance of such acquisitions or joint ventures, and integration of acquisitions and the related confirmation or remediation of internal controls over financial reporting; changes related to the U.S. and international distribution structure in the company's spirits business; ability to attract and retain qualified personnel; general economic conditions, including the U.S. housing market; weather; risks associated with doing business outside the United States, including currency exchange rate risks; interest rate fluctuations; commodity and energy price volatility; costs of certain employee and retiree benefits and returns on pension assets; dependence on performance of distributors and other marketing arrangements; the impact of excise tax increases on distilled spirits; changes in golf equipment regulatory standards and other regulatory developments; potential liabilities, costs and uncertainties of litigation; impairment in the
carrying value of goodwill or other acquired intangibles; historical consolidated financial statements that may not be indicative of future conditions and results; volatility of financial and credit markets, which could affect access to capital for the company, its customers and consumers; any possible downgrades of the company's credit ratings; as well as other risks and uncertainties detailed from time to time in the company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

Use of Non-GAAP Financial Information

This press release includes measures not derived in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP"), such as diluted earnings per share before charges/gains, operating income before charges/gains, return on equity before charges/gains, return on invested capital before charges/gains, comparable net sales, and free cash flow. These measures should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for any measure derived in accordance with GAAP, and may also be inconsistent with similar measures presented by other companies. Reconciliation of these measures to the most closely comparable GAAP measures, and reasons for the company's use of these measures, are presented in the attached pages.