FALLS CHURCH, Va. -- Food Distributors International here said last week it plans to offer its members on-line linkups with a series of existing Internet exchanges to make it possible for them to conduct business-to-business communications.
FDI had intended to form an exchange with Food Marketing Institute, Washington, but those plans fell apart in early May -- reportedly after FMI was instructed by its board of directors not to duplicate B2B efforts by its larger members, who had already begun to establish exchanges among themselves.
The first company to be listed on FDI's Web site will be FleetXchange, which offers expertise and purchasing power for fleet owners, managers and maintenance supervisors in search of more knowledge or better procurement.
FDI said it is in discussions with other exchanges -- involving such categories as meat, produce, poultry, seafood, specialty foods and imports -- although the association said it was reluctant to name specific companies until formal agreements have been signed.
John R. Block, FDI president, said the association is confident its members will benefit from the association with FleetXchange.
"We believe FDI's community of fleet professionals, who are responsible for managing 40,000 trucks, will see immediate benefits from FleetXchange.com through greater access to knowledge, expertise, best practices and purchasing economies," he said.
He said FleetXchange uses the Internet to bring fleets together to enjoy the same purchasing economies and efficiencies usually reserved for only the largest fleets. In addition, it is designed to streamline the procurement process for FDI member companies and participating suppliers, resulting in an improved flow of purchasing-related information among fleets, suppliers and distributors.
Bob Gatty, FDI vice president, communications and marketing, said FDI hopes to have the FleetXchange component available by Aug. 1 for testing by members of the association's transportation committee; it hopes to make the service available to all members by Sept. 1, he added.
"Our goal is to bring together companies that make sense for our members and to make access to them available through our Web site at FDI.com," Gatty explained. "Accordingly, we're in touch with a number of vertical exchange companies that can provide product categories or product lines to wholesalers and retailers.
"Although our member companies can certainly dial these companies up directly without going through FDI, they would have to figure out where to go and whom to deal with. Instead, we'll bring together a group of such companies to make it easier for members to find what they need."
"We see this as a way of pulling together different modules and adding to the selection as we go forward," Gatty said. "Each exchange will be co-branded with the FDI site so they're all part of an overall offering."
According to Gatty, when the joint exchange with FMI fell through, "FDI decided that the project was getting to be more complex and expensive than we really wanted to tackle, and we felt there was no point in establishing our own exchange that would compete with others.
"But we felt it was still important to do some things for our members, particularly the small- and medium-sized members without the capability of going out and involving themselves with large exchanges. So we adopted the strategy of taking advantage of exchanges that have already been developed by others."
To access the B2B exchanges, FDI members will go to FDI.org, then click on whatever icon the association develops, which will give members a choice of various entities, Gatty explained. "It could be arranged by product category or the name of the exchange -- we haven't yet decided that," he said.
"The idea is not to try to re-create something but to take advantage of exchanges that are successful and likely to be around beyond the next quarter, and then to make those available to our members."
Gatty said FDI's purpose in setting up the exchange offerings "is not to squeeze suppliers on prices but to make it convenient and easy for members to gather information. The program will also put members in touch with information sources within each product category, which will make the Web site more useful."
FDI's Web site is also adding a job exchange in which employers can list openings and potential employees can look for jobs, Gatty said.
