Release Details

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., Apr 23, 2002 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- Universal Forest Products, Inc. (Nasdaq: UFPI) announced a semi-annual dividend of $0.045 per share, payable on June 15, 2002 to shareholders of record as of June 1, 2002. The company has paid an annual cash dividend since 1983, a semi-annual dividend since 1990, and has increased its dividend in each of the past eight years. This is the company's twenty-seventh consecutive semi-annual cash dividend.

"In a time when many companies have faltered, UFPI, through sound strategies and the best workforce in the nation, has remained strong," said Peter F. Secchia, UFPI's chairman of the board. "We are pleased once again to share our success with the people who have invested in us."

Universal Forest Products markets, manufactures, and engineers products for D-I-Y retail home centers, structural lumber products for the manufactured housing industry, engineered wood components for the site-built construction market and specialty wood packaging for various industries. For information about Universal Forest Products on the Internet, please contact the company's web site at www.ufpi.com , or call 888-Buy-UFPI.

SOURCE Universal Forest Products, Inc.

CONTACT: Michael R. Cole, Chief Financial Officer of Universal Forest Products, Inc., +1-616-364-6161