The Delhaize Group together with the American retailer J.C. Penney today announced they have joined the WorldWide Retail Exchange, the web-based, business-to-business marketplace founded last month by 12 international retailers.
The new participants are the Delhaize Group, the Belgian food retailer with interests in the United States and 10 other countries, over 2,000 stores and 1999 sales of EUR 14.3 billion; and J.C. Penney Company, Inc., with 1999 sales of USD 32.5 billion the largest mail order (catalog) operation in the US and more than 4,000 department stores and Eckerd drugstores. The two retailers will become founding members as well, participating in the initial 60% of the founding capital of the Exchange.
Their participation brings the number of founding members of the WorldWide Retail Exchange to 14. In alphabetical order: Albertson's (USA), Auchan (France), Casino (France), CVS (USA), Delhaize Group (Belgium), J.C. Penney (USA), Kingfisher (UK), K-Mart (USA), Marks & Spencer (UK), Royal Ahold (The Netherlands), Safeway, Inc. (USA), Target (USA), Tesco (UK) and Walgreens (USA). Jointly, the Exchange operates around 40,000 stores with 1999 combined sales approaching EUR 370 billion.
'We are delighted to welcome two retailers of the caliber of Delhaize and J.C. Penney to the WorldWide Retail Exchange,' said a spokesman for the Exchange. 'A strong Exchange is in the interests of all members. We believe it will soon become the standard for e-commerce transactions with costs for all parties, including the suppliers, decreasing dramatically.'
The 14 member companies will be able to conduct a full range of food, non-food, textile and drugstore e-commerce transactions with individual vendors, independent of one another. It is anticipated that other retailers will join the Exchange in the near future. Each retailer company will use the Exchange to build infrastructure and procure merchandise, supplies, equipment and other business-related goods and services from participating suppliers.
The Delhaize Group is a food retailer headquartered in Belgium and listed on the Brussels Stock Exchange. The Delhaize Group operates in 11 countries and achieved in 1999 sales of EUR 14.3 billion (BEF 577.3 billion) and its net earnings amounted to EUR 169.9 million (BEF 6.9 billion). The Delhaize Group was operating 2,112 stores at the end of 1999.
For any additional information you can contact:
Guy Elewaut,
Investor and Financial Press Relations Director,
Delhaize Group
Tel: +32 (0) 2 412 29 48 or +32 (0) 2 477 50 07 96
Brussels, April 18, 2000.