Food And Beverage Companies Find "Speed of Recall" Top Challenge In New Survey From RedPrairie

RedPrairie Corporation, a leading consumer driven optimization company, recently conducted the "2007 Survey on QA and Recall Technology for Food & Beverage Companies." The survey revealed that 63% of participants felt their current QA and recall processes were "somewhat effective." Speed of recall was chosen as the top challenge confronting US-based food companies and 39% of respondents feel the biggest recall communication gap occurs at the store-level.

Other findings of the survey include:

• 44% responded that their products can be pulled off the shelf in a few days. 12% didn't have a sense of how long it would take to pull their items from the store shelf, indicating a lack of visibility and control across the extended supply chain.
• 63% of respondents indicated they would like their recall technology linked to POS interfaces at stores, including the POS systems link automatically shutting off the recalled SKU at the register. Again, respondents felt the biggest recall communication gap occurs at the store-level.
• While concern over safety of Chinese manufactured goods has dominated the recent press coverage on recalls, respondents to this survey had a mixed opinion on the safety of food and ingredients produced outside the US. 52% indicated the safety of non-US produced food items as excellent, very good, or good, while 39% indicated it was not good, and 10% claimed they had "no visibility" into the safety of non-US food items.
• Only 34% of companies have changed their recall processes in response to the recent rash of recalls. 32% have changed their recall technology in the past few months. The survey found a wide range of technologies being used to manage and execute a recall.

"These results are consistent with what we see with many food retailers and grocers," said Tom Kozenski, VP of Product Strategy at RedPrairie. "Automation is the only way to really verify if recalled products have been pulled from the shelves in an efficient, accurate and timely manner. While there is work to be done to improve the management and execution of recalls in this country, the processes and technology exist to create a seamless communication flow throughout the food & beverage supply chain."

A summary of RedPrairie's "2007 Survey on QA and Recall Technology for Food & Beverage Companies" can be found at www.redprairie.com/recall.

About RedPrairie Corporation
RedPrairie is a world leading consumer driven optimization company. Built on an advanced Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) developed over the past 15 years, the RedPrairie integrated suite of solutions offers on-demand capabilities to over 25,000 sites worldwide for many of the world's largest companies.

RedPrairie's E²e solutions synchronize people and products throughout the customer buying cycle to ensure goods reach the right place at the right time. At the point of sale, this means consumers have access to desired products and that the store is staffed with the right people to help them make their purchases. In the production cycle, it means suppliers and manufacturers time and synchronize shipments and production based on demand signals from the retailer. And in the back room of the store, it means having the least amount of inventory, solving the "last yard" problem of the retail supply chain.

With 20 global service sites and standard service methods that have been validated over the last 30 years, RedPrairie provides unparalleled service and support. For additional information, visit www.RedPrairie.com.

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