PASADENA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 27, 2000--

Charles D. Miller Retires as Chairman;

Remains a Member of the Board of Directors

Avery Dennison Corporation (NYSE:AVY) (PCX:AVY) today announced that its board of directors has elected Philip M. Neal as chairman and chief executive officer, and Dean A. Scarborough as president and chief operating officer, both effective May 1, 2000.

In addition, Scarborough was elected as a member of the board of directors. As planned, Charles D. Miller is retiring as chairman and will remain a member of the board of directors.

Neal, 59, has served as president and chief executive officer of Avery Dennison since May 1, 1998, when Miller transitioned to full-time chairman and stepped down from the chief executive officer role. Before assuming the chief executive position, Neal was president and chief operating officer of Avery Dennison for eight years.

Neal joined Avery Dennison in 1974 as controller and was named vice president a year later. He was promoted in 1979 to senior vice president, Finance, and chief financial officer. He was named group vice president, Materials North America, in 1988. In March 1990, Neal was elected to the position of executive vice president, and in November 1990, he was elected president and chief operating officer.

Neal graduated from Pomona College in 1964 with a degree in Economics and received his master's degree in Business Administration in 1966 from Stanford University.

Throughout his 26-year career at Avery Dennison, Neal has played a key role in implementing the core financial and operating strategies that have supported the growth and direction of the Company. He has been a driving force in directing the Company's strategic focus on growth and increasing economic value.

Under Neal's leadership, Avery Dennison has focused intensely on top-line growth. During the two years that Neal has served as CEO, the Company has continued to achieve double-digit earnings growth, resulting in record profits and returns. Avery Dennison has completed value-enhancing acquisitions, established strategic joint ventures, expanded its manufacturing capacity and launched innovative, new products in both consumer and industrial markets.

In addition, Neal implemented a highly successful restructuring program in 1999 that has realigned the Company's cost structure.

Scarborough, 44, has most recently served as Avery Dennison's senior executive for its global pressure-sensitive materials business. As group vice president, Fasson Roll Worldwide, Scarborough was based in Concord, Ohio, and was responsible for Fasson Roll operations in North America, Europe, the Asia Pacific region, South Africa and Latin America. Fasson Roll Worldwide is the established leader in the pressure-sensitive industry and represents Avery Dennison's largest single business.

Scarborough has served in a variety of management, marketing and business development roles during his career at Avery Dennison. He joined the Company in 1984 as marketing manager at the label and tag converting business and in 1987 became a plant manager in that operation.

Scarborough joined the Fasson Roll Division in 1988, and was named General Manager of the Year in 1992. In 1995, he was promoted to vice president and general manager of Fasson Roll Europe and moved to the Netherlands to manage that operation. Scarborough returned to the U.S. in 1997, when he was appointed group vice president, Fasson Roll North America and Europe. He assumed worldwide responsibility for the Fasson Roll business in 1999.

Scarborough earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1977 from Hiram College in Hiram, Ohio, and received a master's degree in Business Administration in 1979 from the University of Chicago.

Scarborough implemented a number of successful initiatives in the worldwide materials businesses that resulted in improved productivity and growth in sales and profitability. He launched the Six Sigma productivity improvement program in the Fasson Roll organization, generating significant results, which include increased manufacturing efficiencies and production capacity.

Scarborough also accelerated the growth of Avery Dennison's materials businesses with programs to target specific customers and markets, enhance customer service, and provide electronic commerce capabilities new to the pressure-sensitive industry. The Fasson Roll materials operation expanded its global reach under Scarborough's leadership, including substantial investments in Europe.

Miller, 72, served as the Company's chief executive officer from 1977 until 1998, a 21-year period in which Avery Dennison achieved extraordinary sales and profit growth, as well as extensive international and product expansion.

Miller joined the Company in 1964 as director of corporate planning and was rapidly promoted to increasingly responsible positions during the ensuing years. He was elected to the board of directors and became president and chief operating officer in 1975. In 1977, Miller was appointed president and chief executive officer, and he became chairman and chief executive officer in 1983.

The Company also announced that Christian A. Simcic, vice president and managing director of Avery Dennison's Asia Pacific region, will be promoted to the position most recently held by Scarborough. Simcic will assume the responsibilities of group vice president, Fasson Roll Worldwide, on May 1, 2000.

For the past three years, Simcic has provided strong leadership, at both the strategic and operating levels, to the Company's diverse organizations in the Asia Pacific region -- which have achieved an annual growth rate of more than 30 percent. In 1999, he earned a Leadership Excellence Award for Growth Strategy and Execution.

Simcic joined Avery Dennison in 1979 as project engineer for the Fasson Roll Division plant in Champ-sur-Drac, France. Since that time, he has served in increasingly responsible positions, managing operations in Europe, North America and Asia. His accomplishments earned him the distinction of General Manager of the Year for 1994.

Avery Dennison is a global leader in pressure-sensitive technology and innovative self-adhesive solutions for consumer products and label materials. Based in Pasadena, Calif., the Company had 1999 sales of $3.8 billion.

Avery Dennison develops, manufactures and markets a wide range of products for consumer and industrial markets, including Avery-brand office products, Fasson-brand self-adhesive materials, peel-and-stick postage stamps, battery labels, reflective highway safety products, automated retail tag and labeling systems, and specialty tapes and chemicals.

CONTACT: Avery Dennison

              Charles E. Coleman, 626/304-2014 (media)
                communications@averydennison.com
              Cynthia S. Guenther, 626/304-2204 (investors)
                investorcom@averydennison.com