DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 20, 2004--
The viaLink Company (OTCBB: VLNK) announced today that
Ahold USA, the regional office of the international food provider
based in the Netherlands (NYSE: AHO) and one of the nation's largest
food retailers will use viaLink's services to enhance supply chain
visibility and enable Scan Based Trading with its suppliers.
"We see this as a key opportunity to engage our DSD suppliers more
actively in our primary business goal of serving our customers in our
stores," said Bill Grize, President and CEO of Ahold USA. "This will
give our suppliers actionable consumer sales visibility and will help
us enable our suppliers to move quickly to adopt this new business
process, regardless of their technical capabilities."
ViaLink's services will give our DSD supplier community a much
more timely look at Ahold's daily item movement. This is expected to
enable better ordering resulting in an improvement in Ahold's in-stock
position and consumer satisfaction.
"We are extremely pleased to work with Ahold, a leading retailer
in the U.S. grocery market," said Bob Noe, CEO of viaLink. "The tools
we provide for improved collaboration between Ahold and its suppliers
support the ultimate goal of meeting and exceeding customer
expectations."
The Ahold program based on viaLink services is designed to be both
easy and cost effective for suppliers to implement. Ahold will also
communicate directly with their DSD suppliers regarding their scan
based trading program. For more information about Ahold's scan based
trading program call Kevin Krygier, Director, DSD Business
Applications Development, Ahold USA, Inc., at 301-341-3979.
Ahold USA, headquartered in Chantilly, VA oversees 1600 stores in
the United States. The operating companies are BI-LO LLC,
headquartered in Mauldin, SC; Bruno's Supermarkets, Inc., with
headquarters in Birmingham, AL; Giant Food Stores LLC, based in
Carlisle, PA; Giant Food Inc., based in Landover, MD; The Stop & Shop
Companies Inc., headquartered in Boston, MA and Tops Markets LLC, with
headquarters in Buffalo, NY.
The viaLink Company (OTCBB: VLNK) provides advanced e-commerce
services to the retail supply chain. We help progressive
manufacturers, suppliers, distributors and retailers improve the
efficiency of their trading relationships, increase sales and serve
their customers more effectively. For more information about viaLink's
data synchronization, scan based trading, supply chain visibility and
GDSN services, call (972) 934-5500 or visit viaLink's website: www.vialink.com.