WORLDWIDE RETAIL EXCHANGE, Alexandria, Va., has added 11 new members, including Giant Eagle, Pittsburgh, and the H.E. Butt Grocery Co., San Antonio, bringing its total membership to 53 retail companies. Additionally, WWRE said it has selected Alexandria as its corporate headquarters and will open its offices there in January. The exchange has begun to hire staff. Other new members of WWRE include Toys 'R' Us, Montvale, N.J., ShopKo Stores, Green Bay, Wis., Sobeys, Stellarton, Nova Scotia, and the German parent company of A&P, Tengelmann Group. Other retailers from Europe joining the exchange are Coop Schweiz of Switzerland, Coop Italia of Italy, Galeries Lafayette SA of France, Laurus of the Netherlands and Rewe of Germany. In the coming months, the WWRE said it plans to further develop its infrastructure. The WWRE intends to continue recruiting members and suppliers and plans to increase its technology offerings to suppliers and retailers. The exchange said it plans to make more software tools, such as supply chain and e-procurement, available to its members and plans to implement transaction process, product development, catalog development and browsing tools. The WWRE also said it plans to integrate its capabilities with member companies' back-office software.
sing requirements, while automatically generating multiple POs for efficient tracking and invoicing. Conversely, multiple orders now can be aggregated to take full advantage of available truck space.
H.J. HEINZ CO., Pittsburgh, has conducted what is said to be the first-ever reverse auction for television advertising. With the help of FreeMarkets, also in Pittsburgh, Heinz sourced a contract for national television advertising. The advertising is for its Bagel Bites brand of frozen pizza-topped snacks. "We are very excited to have pioneered this cutting-edge method of purchasing advertising," said Charles Lanphear, Heinz' media director. "By sourcing our contract through FreeMarkets, we were able to lock in advertising spots on the right network at the right price and on the right programs. In short, we're maximizing our advertising spending and efficiency." Working with FreeMarkets' market-making team, media buyers within Heinz, as well as representatives from the company's outside advertising agencies prepared a detailed Request For Quote, which not only specified the time period during which advertisements will air, but also the kind of programming during which they will be broadcast. Leveraging their global databases of suppliers, FreeMarkets and Heinz identified broadcast providers who could supply advertising space during programming and times that would attract Bagel Bites' target audience of teens. Nearly a half dozen suppliers participated in the auction, including a number of national television media outlets. "Media buying is a complex task, and FreeMarkets helped to simplify it by enabling us to source exactly what we need, while saving considerable time, paperwork and hassle," Lanphear said. "Heinz has clearly set a new standard for media buying with this auction," said Jason Reneau, director of consumer business at FreeMarkets.
