WOONSOCKET, R.I.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 18, 2000--Two new international
retailers today announced they have joined the WorldWide Retail
Exchange, the web-based, business-to-business marketplace
founded last month by 12 international retailers, including CVS/pharmacy.
The new participants are the Delhaize Group, the Belgian food
retailer with interests in the United States and 10 other countries,
over 2,000 stores and 1999 sales of Euro 14.3 billion, and J.C.
Penney Company, Inc., the largest catalog operation in the U.S.,
with over 4,000 department stores and Eckerd drugstores and 1999
sales of $32.5 billion. The two retailers are to become founding
members as well, and will participate in the initial 60% of the
founding capital of the Exchange.
Their participation swells the number of founding members of
the WorldWide Retail Exchange to 14. In alphabetical order: Albertson's
(USA), Auchan (France), Casino (France), CVS (USA), Delhaize (Belgium),
J.C. Penney (USA), Kingfisher (UK), K-Mart (USA), Marks Spencer
(UK), Royal Ahold (The Netherlands), Safeway, Inc. (USA), Target
(USA), Tesco (UK) and Walgreens (USA). Jointly, the group operates
approximately 40,000 stores with 1999 combined sales of more than
$365 billion.
"We are delighted to welcome three retailers of the caliber of
Delhaize and J.C. Penney to the WorldWide Retail Exchange,"
said a spokesman for the Exchange. "A strong Exchange is in the
interests of all members. We believe it will soon become the standard
for e-commerce transactions, with costs for all parties, including
suppliers, decreasing dramatically."
The 14 member companies of the WorldWide Retail Exchange
- and others to be announced in the future - will make use of
the Exchange to conduct the full range of food, non-food and drugstore
e-commerce transactions with individual vendors, independent of
one another. Each retail company will use the Exchange for the
procurement of merchandise, supplies, equipment, infrastructure
and other business-related goods and services from participating
suppliers. The vendor community has responded enthusiastically
to negotiating transactions with individual retailers through
the Exchange. CVS/pharmacy is the nation's largest retail provider
of prescriptions. The Company is the number one drugstore chain
in the U.S. with approximately 4,100 stores in the Northeast,
Mid-Atlantic, Southeast and Midwest regions of the country. General
information about CVS, including corporate background and press
releases, is available at CVS's web site at www.cvs.com.
CONTACT:
CVS/pharmacy Mike DeAngelis
401-770-2645
07:33 EDT APRIL 18, 2000
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