Alliant Exchange is a reflection of our strategy to create a fast, reliable network of ‘bricks’ and ‘clicks’ built around the continuous flow of market-critical information among all players in the value chain, said Earl L. Mason, president and chief executive officer. We have a significant opportunity to create value through the intelligent and aggressive application of today’s Internet and supply-chain management technology.
The pieces of Alliant Exchange are closely integrated. Alliant Foodservice is one of the nation’s largest broadline distributors, with a nationwide network of 44 distribution and food processing centers, a catalog of 180,000 food items and related supplies, and 100,000 active customers.
AlliantLink.com is a sophisticated Web-based order-entry and service delivery
system that serves as an important portal for Alliant Exchange, providing,
among other things, complete access to the Alliant Foodservice catalog and a
valuable source of click stream-based market intelligence similar to the
scanner data now collected and sold by retail stores.
An important element supporting both subsidiaries is an upgrade to Alliant’s supply-chain management system, built around core modules from i2 Technologies. The system will enable Alliant and its suppliers to more accurately forecast and plan for demand so that orders can be consistently and completely filled, on time every time. Of equal importance is Alliant’s ramped-up investment, more than $100 million in 2000 alone in its bricks and clicks infrastructure of warehouses, advanced warehouses, e-commerce and supply-chain management capabilities.
Alliant Exchange is the focal point of a profitable growth strategy to give customers, suppliers and Alliant new ways to benefit from an expanded chain of faster and more effective commercial relationships.
Our core industry is foodservice, but our customer base is eager to find cost-effective solutions for a wide range of aggregation, logistics and distribution issues, said Mason. We expect Alliant Exchange to rapidly expand its capabilities and roster of relationships in areas that are attractive to our suppliers, beneficial to our customers and will produce profitable growth for our company.
