Today UTi Worldwide Inc. (Nasdaq: UTIW) announced the signing of a contract with Wal-Mart Stores East, L.P. (an affiliate of Wal–Mart Stores, Inc.) (NYSE:WMT). The contract awards UTi Integrated Logistics the management of warehouse distribution services for a new Wal–Mart import storage complex. The multi–million–square–foot Wal–Mart complex is scheduled to open in April 2005 and will be located in Baytown, TX, 25 miles east of Houston near Galveston Bay.

Under the award, UTi Integrated Logistics will be responsible for receiving goods and shipping them to Wal–Mart’s regional distribution centers.

“We see this award as a testament to the leadership role UTi is building in contract logistics,” said Roger I. MacFarlane, UTi’s chief executive officer. “This contract demonstrates the breadth, depth and quality of our team in the United States and worldwide.”

Bill Gates, chief executive of UTi Integrated Logistics in Columbia, added, “We have built a strong relationship with Wal–Mart over the past four years, operating an import flow and storage operation in Charleston, SC, for Wal–Mart’s Direct Import Department. We look forward to this new assignment and to expanding the value of UTi’s contract logistics services with one of our key customers.”

Tim Yatsko, vice president of Direct Imports for Wal–Mart Stores, Inc., commented, “UTi Integrated Logistics has done an outstanding job for Wal–Mart in the past. We look forward to their excellent performance going forward. The Baytown, TX facility will serve our Central US Distribution Centers as part of our expanding Direct Import network.”

The new complex brings total warehousing facilities under UTi’s management to more than 20 million square feet and adds to a series of contracts recently signed by UTi Integrated Logistics. In 2004, UTi Integrated Logistics opened a distribution center in Toluca, Mexico, near Mexico City, for a major automotive customer –– the fourth such facility outsourced by the company to UTi Integrated Logistics. Additionally, a major paper and consumer goods customer recently retained UTi Integrated Logistics to operate a 350,000 square–foot distribution center in Richmond, VA.

UTi Worldwide’s operations currently encompass a network of freight forwarding offices in 257 cities and 106 distribution centers in 54 countries.