FoodLink® Reports Significant Growth in 2011

LOS GATOS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--FoodLink®, the online network for fresh food retailers, wholesalers and suppliers, experienced significant growth in 2011, adding new customers at a record pace, introducing new products and growing network commerce for fresh produce by more than 30 percent.

“At a time when fresh, safe food is increasingly important to consumers, FoodLink is rapidly becoming the industry standard for helping retailers, wholesalers and their suppliers manage the perishable goods category to achieve their sales and merchandising goals.”

“This has been a productive year for FoodLink and for our customers,” said Eric Peters, President and CEO, FoodLink. “At a time when fresh, safe food is increasingly important to consumers, FoodLink is rapidly becoming the industry standard for helping retailers, wholesalers and their suppliers manage the perishable goods category to achieve their sales and merchandising goals.”

FoodLink is an online network that improves business for all of the participants in the fragmented perishable goods supply chain. The network consists of more than 2,000 retail grocers and their fresh food suppliers, including carriers and third-party brokers and wholesalers. The network helps retailers manage the fresh food category to source the highest quality products at competitive prices while reducing waste and inefficiencies between suppliers and buyers that contribute to higher food costs. For suppliers, FoodLink is a sales platform that simplifies the process of managing orders, tracking shipments, responding to change requests, and receiving payment.

New Retailers and Suppliers Expand the Network

In 2011, retailers such as Giant Eagle, Price Chopper Supermarkets, KVAT Food Stores and Roundy’s Supermarkets selected FoodLink as their platform for sourcing and purchasing perishable goods. In addition, established FoodLink buyers such as Ahold USA, C&S Wholesale Grocers, Topco Associates, Supervalu and Unified Grocers all renewed their commitment to the network.

“FoodLink is a unique solution that enables us to improve our exposure and access to a broader array of high-quality suppliers for our produce department, thereby increasing value to our customers while eliminating many inefficient manual processes,” said Steve Kinishi, Vice President, Roundy’s.

The FoodLink network also grew in terms of overall purchase order (PO) volume and in the number of trading partner connections between buyers and sellers. More than 200 new suppliers signed up for annual subscriptions, and overall network traffic increased with more than 450 new supplier-buyer relationships. Year-over-year, the number of orders for fresh produce grew by 16 percent, contributing to a more than 30 percent increase in total sales over FoodLink in 2011.

In addition, a record number of high volume suppliers signed up for FoodLink DirectConnect, a service that directly integrates back-end financial and operational systems with the FoodLink network. New DirectConnect customers include Capital Logistics, C.H. Robinson, Dandrea Produce, Dole Fresh Fruit, Frank Donio, Genpro, Mission Produce, Nature Sweet, Premio Foods, Railex, Ready Pac Produce, Russet Potato Exchange and State Garden.

New Products for Suppliers

The pace of innovation at FoodLink accelerated in 2011 with new supplier-focused products such as FreshBuys promotional advertising, DirectConnect and supplier performance benchmarking through a partnership with the Tompkins Supply Chain Consortium. The company also launched Open EDI, enabling suppliers to transact with any buying organization with electronic data interchange (EDI), regardless of whether that buyer is currently on the FoodLink network.

“Our partnership with FoodLink enables perishable goods suppliers to gain access to the Tompkins Supply Chain Consortium, which already includes hundreds of shippers and logistics service providers,” said Bruce Tompkins, Executive Director, Tompkins Supply Chain Consortium. “By joining the consortium, perishable goods suppliers can compare their operations and financial performance against others, track best performance and best practices, and receive insightful industry information such as hot topic reports and thought leadership analysis.”

In 2011, FoodLink also launched FreshBuys LIVE, a first-of-its kind series of one-day regional events connecting retail buyers and perishable goods suppliers doing business over FoodLink. More information about the 2012 FreshBuys LIVE series can be found at: www.foodlink.net/live2012.

About FoodLink^®

FoodLink® is a platform for retailers and wholesalers to manage the perishable goods category. The online network represents more than 2,000 companies including grower-shippers, carriers, retail grocers and wholesalers. With FoodLink, retailers and wholesalers efficiently source the freshest and safest foods from trusted suppliers, and suppliers improve sales to important trading partners. For more information, visit www.foodlink.net.