Kraft Foods North America, the largest branded food company in North America, announced yesterday that it has entered into a strategic agreement with InterCommercial Markets Corp., an Internet-based provider of trading, information and communications services to the global commodities industry.
The agreement will enable Kraft to use InterCommercial’s Web-based system for North American green coffee procurement. As part of the strategic agreement, Kraft can take an equity stake in InterCommercial.
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“Our decision to select InterCommercial as an integral part of our green coffee procurement process reflects the benefits and ease of use of the web-based, transaction platform they have developed,” said Brian Meinken, Director of North America Coffee Procurement for Kraft. “We are impressed with their system’s promised ability to automate many procurement functions for our coffee professionals. By adopting the InterCommercial system, and joining their on-line marketplace, we expect to achieve efficiency gains that will reduce the administrative and transaction costs associated with our green coffee procurement activities. We are excited about using InterCommercial’s products and services as part of our overall coffee procurement e-commerce strategy.”
“We are delighted that Kraft Foods has decided to use InterCommercial’s system as part of its green coffee procurement,” said InterCommercial President and CEO, Ted Heilman. “Kraft’s decision to adopt the InterCommercial platform validates our efforts to create the premier transaction enabling platform and exchange for the $50 billion physical green coffee industry.”
“Our platform’s interactive features will improve communication and the flow of information among industry players,” said Heilman. “As the platform evolves to facilitate complete supply-chain integration, InterCommercial looks forward to being the leader in helping Kraft and thousands of other large and small market participants reduce their trading and procurement costs and conduct their business more efficiently.”
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By GlobalDataKraft Foods, headquartered in Northfield, IL, is the North American food business of the Philip Morris Companies Inc. Kraft is the largest branded food company in North America and the second-largest in the world. It markets coffee in North America under several brands, including Maxwell House, Sanka, Yuban, General Foods International Coffees, Gevalia, Maxim and Nabob, among others.
About InterCommercial Markets
InterCommercial Markets Corp. (www.intercommercial.com) is a privately held, independent on-line exchange and application service provider for the global commodities industry. The company’s Internet-based marketplace will provide trading, information and communication services to the industry, beginning with the physical green coffee, cocoa and sugar markets. The company’s management team has significant experience in both international commodities trade and systems management and founded InterCommercial in 1999.
Current InterCommercial investors include Mercon Coffee Corporation and E.D. & F. Man, Ltd., two leading multinational physical commodity-trading groups and Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., one of the world’s leading commodity banks. InterCommercial recently announced that Swiss-based Volcafe Ltd., one of the world’s leading coffee merchants, is to acquire a substantial equity stake as lead investor in the company’s current round of financing. In September InterCommercial entered into a memorandum of understanding to develop a joint venture with the New York Board of Trade, a leading futures and options commodities exchange and parent company of the Coffee, Sugar, & Cocoa Exchange, Inc. and the New York Cotton Exchange.
