SOURCE: GT Nexus, Inc.

September 26, 2007 06:24 ET

Del Monte Foods Selects GT Nexus

Leading CPG Company Deploys On-Demand Transportation Management Platform, Completes 2007 Bid in Eight Weeks

ALAMEDA, CA--(Marketwire - September 26, 2007) - GT Nexus announced today that Del Monte Foods Company (NYSE: DLM) selected its Trade and Logistics Portal to serve as the food giant's international transportation management and shipment visibility platform. The platform was successfully used for the 2007 ocean transportation bid, including optimization of the transportation spend and carrier allocations. The company's finalized ocean contracts have been digitized, making them easy to manage and monitor by Del Monte and its ocean carriers.

One of the US's largest manufacturers of branded canned fruit, vegetables, pet foods and snacks, tuna, and broths, Del Monte reported sales of more than $3.4 billion for fiscal 2007. The company has been growing rapidly over the past few years, causing a significant growth in ocean spend, and making tighter contract management a priority.

"As a leading CPG manufacturer, we face huge challenges in managing an ever more complex transportation network. Using the GT Nexus portal gives us visibility and control over that network," said Bill Pollard, VP Customer Service and Transportation at Del Monte. "Increasingly, global transportation is a strategic initiative for us and GT Nexus gives us a whole new, smart way to manage our global freight movement and spend."

GT Nexus is providing the entire platform on-demand, over the Web, removing the need for expensive software installations and maintenance. Internal users at Del Monte, as well as the carriers and other logistics partners who serve them, can now work efficiently together through a common set of Web applications.

The transportation management system works in two stages. First, during the bidding process, the GT Nexus strategic allocation optimization engine is used to compare thousands of different service and price scenarios. All of the data, including rates and service terms are captured online in standardized formats, allowing for better, faster comparison of proposals. The options are then evaluated to determine an allocation plan that optimizes transportation spend while preserving key business rules.

Then, once the contracts have been awarded, the GT Nexus system becomes a transportation contract management system of record that supports ongoing amendments and updates as services are delivered. The ocean contract information also acts as a logistics data hub that can support future procurement cycles and other add-on capabilities, such as freight audit and document exchange.

The platform is now being expanded to support global shipment visibility that will allow Del Monte to track global shipments as they move from origin to final destination. Configurable exception management and alert capabilities will help ensure freight moves as planned. This will minimize costly delays and potential fees and fines.

"GT Nexus has helped bring our international transportation management into the 21st Century," added Pollard. "We didn't have to pay upfront and install a huge system before knowing if it was the right thing for us. We already have results that have exceeded our expectations. We are expecting to see a significant reduction in our ocean transportation spend for 2007."

"Del Monte has already benefited from the power of a Web-based industry platform," noted Greg Johnsen, EVP and Founder at GT Nexus. "They completed their global bid quickly because the system was in place and their carriers were already familiar with the process based on experience with several other GT Nexus customers. The results speak for themselves."

Now that the platform is operational, Del Monte has the option to evaluate and add other strategic services to the system as they see fit. The same core GT Nexus infrastructure can support a broad set of strategic services like item level, multi-modal visibility, trade document automation and supply chain finance.

About GT Nexus

GT Nexus runs the world's only industry-backed, on-demand global trade & logistics portal. Today, more than 40,000 registered users, from over 15,000 organizations use a range of capabilities on the portal to optimize the global flow of goods and trade information from order point to final payment. GT Nexus connects the physical and financial supply chains. This allows buyers, sellers, banks and logistics providers to work over a common platform with a core set of information that supports multiple trade and logistics functions. Customers include Xerox, American Eagle Outfitters, Procter & Gamble, Weyerhaeuser and The Home Depot. For information, visit www.gtnexus.com.