nurun (formerly Informission/Intellia) will serve as technology consultants to Quebecor World on
the e-commerce front.
APRIL 25, 2000
Quebecor World to Establish B2B Private Exchange:
Potential Move Towards Industry Marketplace
MONTREAL, CANADA and GREENWICH, UNITED KINGDOM and FRIBOURG,
SWITZERLAND--At its annual general meeting today, Quebecor World
outlined an emerging e-commerce strategy. Building on its
experience over the past two years with the establishment and
operation of a wholly-owned global procurement facility based in
Fribourg, Switzerland that has allowed the Company to aggregate
demand for strategic items such as ink and paper across its 160
plus plants worldwide, Quebecor World announced its plans to
expand its global procurement activities into a full B2B private
exchange.
As it continues to invest in the proprietary e-procurement
solution which links the Company to its key materials suppliers,
Quebecor World intends to build a company-wide e-procurement
platform that will allow it to capture economies and transaction
efficiencies in all procurement areas going forward.
Charles Cavell, President and CEO of Quebecor World stated, "We
have already realized efficiency gains by using e-commerce tools
to aggregate demand and standardize procedures across our platform
and with suppliers. Because of our success, we are increasing our
focus in this area and we continue to study the various models
arising in other industries. In particular, we have begun to
investigate the concept of an industry marketplace, as we feel the
printing industry contains inefficiencies which can only be
addressed through an industry-wide effort."
Mr. Cavell continued, "Typically, an industry marketplace brings
together strategic partners to establish standards which allow
participating companies to improve their procurement process,
reduce inventories and lower transaction costs. We will initiate
discussions with leading participants in the print media industry
and their suppliers in North America and Europe. We are convinced
the industry as a whole can benefit from increased cooperation
amongst players in the supply chain."
"As the industry's most efficient strategic procurement player,
and given our commitment to increased spending on e-procurement,
we believe this is the way to go," said Sylvain Levert, Vice
President, Corporate Services and Logistics (Fribourg). "We
believe the industry as a whole could see economies comparable to
those we have experienced through the integration of our
procurement activities."
The Company has retained the services of KPMG as strategic
consultants as this initiative moves forward. nurun (formerly
Informission/Intellia), who has been assisting the Company in the
rollout of its web-based global procurement system for ink and
paper, will serve as technology consultants to Quebecor World on
the e-commerce front.
Quebecor World Inc. (NYSE: PRW, TSE: IQI - both to be changed to
IQW on April 28) is the largest commercial print media services
company in the world. The Company is a leader in most of its
major product categories, which include magazines, inserts and
circulars, books, catalogs, specialty printing and direct mail,
directories, digital pre-media and other value added services.
The Company has over 40,000 employees working in more than 160
printing and related facilities in the United States, Canada,
France, the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, Austria, Sweden,
Finland, Chile, Argentina, Peru, Columbia, Mexico and India.
Except for historical information contained herein, the statements
in this release are forward-looking and made pursuant to the safe
harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown
risks and uncertainties that may cause the Company's actual
results in future periods to differ materially from forecasted
results. Those risks include, among others, changes in customers'
demand for the Company's products, changes in raw material and
equipment costs and availability, seasonal changes in customer
orders, pricing actions by the Company's competitors, and general
changes in economic conditions. Those and other risks are more
fully described in the Company's filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission. |
