McCormick Announces Increase in Quarterly Dividend

SPARKS, Md., Nov. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Board of Directors of McCormick & Company, Incorporated (NYSE: MKC) today approved a 13% increase in the regular quarterly cash dividend from $0.16 to $0.18 per share on its common stocks, payable January 20, 2006, to shareholders of record December 30, 2005.

Said Robert J. Lawless, Chairman, President & CEO, "In 2005, we have had our share of challenges. Sales and profits have been hampered by a high cost inventory of vanilla beans, weakness in industrial sales, and the effects of Hurricane Katrina. These situations are generally considered one-time events and unique to this period of time. While we are confident that these issues will be behind us in 2006, we are taking steps to improve our business further and build for the future.

"As we work through this difficult year and initiate improvement actions, we still regard dividends as an important part of shareholder return. Our objective is to pay out 35-45% of income in dividends. Year-to-date, dividends paid to shareholders has increased 12% from the prior year.

"We continue to be in the right business - we make food, beverages and snacks taste great. We have a committed team that will recover from this challenging year. We have experienced difficult years like this in the past and have rebounded as a stronger company. We expect this cycle to be no different."

SOURCE McCormick & Company, Incorporated

CONTACT:
McCormick & Company Corporate Communications
410-771-7310