Leading U.S. Snack-Maker, McKee Foods, Selects Meru Networks for Voice and Data Wireless LAN

Deploys Meru’s WLAN System to Increase Operational Efficiency throughout Headquarters and Production Facility

Sunnyvale, CA – May 16, 2005

Meru Networks, the global leader in Enterprise VoIP mobility infrastructure, today announced that McKee Foods Corporation, makers of Little Debbie Snack Cakes and Sunbelt products, has selected Meru’s WLAN System to deploy a wireless voice and data network throughout its headquarters campus in Collegedale, Tennessee. With the Meru WLAN System, featuring its unique cellular Wi-Fi architecture, McKee Foods has already begun to see dramatic improvements in the efficiency of its manufacturing and warehousing operations.

With the increasingly strategic role of its wireless network—which was evolving from supporting point applications such as bar code scanning and pallet location tracking to delivering a comprehensive, real-time warehouse management solution—McKee Foods recognized the need to replace its legacy wireless network. After evaluating a variety of wireless LAN systems, McKee Foods found that only Meru’s WLAN System could deliver the centralized management and security they needed, while supporting the rigorous mobility requirements of McKee Food’s employees. Specifically, McKee Foods needed a WLAN that could deliver superior performance and range in a manufacturing environment plagued by co-channel interference and numerous physical barriers. In addition, McKee Foods wanted to ensure seamless hand-offs across access points (APs) to prevent unnecessary re-authentication as users move across the facility.

“My infrastructure team wears many hats to support the vast networking requirements of the Company’s complex manufacturing and business operations,” said Bo Smith, IS Group Manager at McKee Foods. “We don’t have the luxury of dedicating a whole team to managing just our wireless network. With Meru’s WLAN System, we were able to eliminate many of the management issues associated with supporting a mission-critical wireless LAN infrastructure.”

McKee Food’s new WLAN network is being used currently for data applications such as scanning, asset location and real-time communications between front-line supervisors equipped with PDAs and the manufacturing line. However, one of the primary reasons McKee Foods chose Meru’s solution was for its unique ability to deliver toll-quality voice over wireless. As McKee Foods migrates its proprietary wireless telephony system to a Wi-Fi based system, the Meru WLAN System will provide high-quality support for both voice and data users over a single, converged network infrastructure.

“Meru provides the ideal platform for delivering mission-critical applications in complex manufacturing environments like that of McKee Foods,” said Ben Gibson, vice president of marketing for Meru Networks. “With the only WLAN System capable of delivering zero-latency hand-off, over-the-air QoS, and RF contention management, Meru enables these organizations to leverage the benefits of mobility in their data applications today, while planning for converged voice and data mobility later.”

About McKee Foods

McKee Foods Corporation is best known for its line of Little Debbie® snack cakes. Little Debbie® is America’s leading snack-cake brand with annual sales of more than $1 billion. The company was founded by the late O.D. and Ruth McKee in 1934 when they bought a three-person, one-cent cookie and vanilla wafer shop and converted it to a 5-cent cake bakery in Chattanooga, Tenn. It was known as McKee Baking Company from the 1950s until 1991, when the name was changed to McKee Foods Corporation. The company offers more than 70 different varieties of Little Debbie snack cakes and 16 different snacks and granola cereals under the Sunbelt brand name. The company is committed to total quality with headquarters in Collegedale, Tennessee.

About Meru Networks

Meru Networks is the global leader in converged wireless LAN technologies, and makes the only enterprise WLAN infrastructure that delivers the reliability, scalability, and security for voice and data services over a single WLAN infrastructure. Meru’s Wireless LAN System is deployed in major Fortune 500 accounts, universities, and healthcare organizations. Meru’s unique Air Traffic Control technology provides predictable bandwidth and over-the-air, application-specific QoS to support a wide range of current and future wireless applications. Founded in 2002, Meru is based in Sunnyvale, California. For more information on Meru Networks and its products, visit www.merunetworks.com or call (408) 215-5300.