Subsidiary files for bankruptcy — not Bella's Market parent company

Press Release from VM Odells:

On Sept. 24, VM Odells, owner of grocery stores in Akron, Wray, Haxtun, Wiggins,
Walden, and St. Francis, KS voluntarily entered Chapter 11 protective bankruptcy proceedings in
Federal Court in Denver. VM Odells LLC is a subsidiary of Village Markets Holdings LTD. The
parent company did not file for bankruptcy protection. VM Odells operates stores under Bella’s Market
through a licensing agreement.

“We reluctantly entered into Chapter 11 with certain stores to protect ourselves from an overly
aggressive creditor action”, said Sam Mancini, President and CEO. “Entering into the bankruptcy
proceedings we were current on all of our debt and vendor payments and we have no intention to do
anything other than pay our debts in full. We had never anticipated entering into Chapter 11 until Sept. 23, as a result of actions by a certain creditor. In fact, we had worked very hard
to set ourselves up to be able to invest greatly into our stores and our inventory over the coming
months.”

“We are committed to our customers, our communities and our employees and have worked non‐stop
to get into a position to move our company to the next level,” said Mancini.

In 2011, VM Odells was a victim of FirsTier Bank’s closing by the FDIC. Like many businesses in that
situation, the closing severely affected their cash flow and operations. Last fall, VM Odells began
banking with Fort Morgan State Bank. “We have a good relationship with our bank, Fort Morgan State
Bank and expect to work closely with them throughout this process.”

“Our inventories have been running low but that was not why we sought bankruptcy protection. We
had been prepared to invest heavily in inventory over the next three months.”

There will be no employee layoffs, no closing of stores and no anticipated changes to vendors.
Any stores that were temporarily closed expect to be reopened on Sept. 26.