Founded last year in Sweden, Meatingpoint.com is making inroads in the UK. The online marketplace for the meat industry has signed ten UK customers and is in advanced talks with two of the country’s five largest retailers. The group believes it could account for 5-10% of the EU meat market within two to five years. Catherine Sleep caught up with Malcolm Morrison, Meatingpoint’s area manager for the UK and Ireland, at the International Food Exhibition in London to find out why.
Go deeper with GlobalData
The guiding principle behind Meatingpoint.com is to translate existing relationships between buyers and sellers onto the Internet and make these relationships work more effectively. Many suppliers are sceptical about the benefits they stand to gain from online marketplaces, and these early days of online trading are seeing an intensive education process. Morrison believes that one of the company’s main points of difference is that all the key employees come from the meat industry and have first-hand experience of how the supply chain works.
This is a convincing response to the debate currently pitting industry-backed marketplaces against their independent counterparts. A few months ago industry US meat exchange FoodUSA.com stopped trading as investors withheld funding. Industry sources blamed investor apathy on the knowledge that CommerceVentures.com was soon to be launched by industry leaders including Tyson and the red meat arm of Cargill. While Meatingpoint.com is independent, its managers and founders all have many years of experience within the meat industry. Indeed, it was at the request of the Swedish meat industry that the online marketplace was first established. For his part, Morrison runs three farms and has worked for the Scottish arm of the National Farmers’ Union.
Morrison expressed confidence that Meatingpoint’s offering will continue to convert cynics to customers. As anticipated, there is a degree of resistance to the shift online, but acceptance is growing. “Customers are using our service tentatively to begin with, but I anticipate that some small retailers, manufacturers or processors could soon handle their entire meat sourcing requirements using Meatingpoint.com,” he said.
One of the concerns often voiced in this context is the fear that personal relationships will be lost in the transition to the faceless technology. Not so, says Morrison – “all parties using the system are ‘known,’ and we have no anonymous auction facility. We want to put personal relationships online and help them work more efficiently.” Many of the members will use the online services that Meatingpoint.com offers, to sort out the fine detail of a given transaction while still picking up the phone if they need the personal comfort of more direct communication. Completely confidentiality is ensured throughout the buying/selling process.
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalDataFirst launched in Sweden at the beginning of 2000, the founding partners have worked hard to make sure the system replicates the trading processes of the meat industry. The team cooperates closely with new customers. No commission is charged and customers go through a free three-month trial with extensive training before signing up. They pay to have their product catalogue set up and retain a high level of control over this catalogue. For instance, they can change the photographs of joints of meat if they feel they inadequately represent the product they are offering. Once this trial period is over, customers agree a licence fee based on the value they feel is being added to their business.
Let’s hope that it will provide a meeting point for the European meat industry.
