Leading U.S. and European consumer products marketers last week launched Transora.com, an ambitious business-to-business exchange.
Its investors spend an estimated $350 billion on goods and services to operate their companies.
Participants include Kellogg Co., Kraft Foods Inc., Procter & Gamble Co., Sara Lee Corp., Unilever, Coca-Cola Co., Diageo PLC and Earthgrains Co. A total of 49 companies representing $500 billion in annual sales will initially invest $250 million in Transora.
“This will help us achieve a lot of efficiencies on the services and transactions that go on behind the scenes before the product actually gets to the customer,” said Christine K. Ervin, spokeswoman at Kellogg, Battle Creek, MI, which invested $7 million in the venture.
The exchange follows a pattern set by the automotive, retail, chemical, aerospace, oil and healthcare markets, each of which aims to streamline purchases and sales worth billions of dollars.
Transora is designed to simplify the supply chain process. It will offer vendor and product catalogs, online order management, supply chain collaboration and financial and procurement services.
