Giant Eagle First Food Retailer to Conduct Industrial Purchasing
Through FreeMarkets(R) Online Auction Marketplace
PITTSBURGH, Feb. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Giant Eagle, Inc., a leading
supermarket retailer, and FreeMarkets, Inc. (Nasdaq: FMKT), the world's
leading online auction marketplace, today announced that they have signed a
new agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, retail food innovator Giant
Eagle will use the FreeMarkets online auction marketplace to conduct strategic
purchasing.
"As a retailer in the highly competitive food industry, we're continually
innovating our products, services and business practices," said David Shapira,
Chairman and CEO of Giant Eagle. "We turned to FreeMarkets to explore ways of
using their business-to-business auction marketplace to increase our
profitability."
"We are pleased that Giant Eagle has chosen to source both items they sell
and supporting supplies through our online auction marketplace," said Glen
Meakem, chairman and CEO of FreeMarkets, Inc. "Giant Eagle is clearly on the
cutting-edge of e-commerce in the retail food industry, and we are committed
to keeping them there through our combination of proprietary online auction
technology, technical operations, industrial market making services and global
database of suppliers."
About Giant Eagle
Founded in 1931, Giant Eagle, Inc. operates 108 corporate and
93 independent stores throughout western Pennsylvania, northeastern Ohio and
north central West Virginia. By offering modern stores with a wide range of
departments and services, and involvement in numerous community activities,
Giant Eagle strives to "Make Life Simple" for the customers they serve.
About FreeMarkets
FreeMarkets is the world's leading online auction marketplace for
industrial parts, raw materials, commodities and services. The Company
created online auctions for over $2.7 billion worth of purchase orders in 1999
and nearly $1.0 billion worth of purchase orders in 1998. Since 1995,
FreeMarkets has created online auctions for products in more than 70 supply
verticals, including injection molded plastic parts, commercial machinings,
metal fabrications, chemicals, printed circuit boards, corrugated packaging
and coal. More than 3,000 suppliers from over 45 countries have participated
in FreeMarkets auctions. FreeMarkets provides access to its online auction
marketplace to industrial buyers and suppliers. The FreeMarkets marketplace
includes proprietary online auction technology, technical operations,
industrial market making services, access to a global database of suppliers
and supplier research, call center support to buyers and suppliers in over
30 languages, and marketplace rules. The Company's current clients include
United Technologies Corporation, The Quaker Oats Company, Owens Corning, Eaton
Corporation, Emerson Electric Company, FirstEnergy Corp., SmithKline Beecham
plc, Navistar International and Delphi Automotive Systems Corporation.
FreeMarkets can be found on the Web at http://www.freemarkets.com. FreeMarkets is a
registered trademark of FreeMarkets, Inc.
Forward-looking statements
Statements in this press release that are not historical facts, including
those statements that refer to FreeMarkets' plans, prospects, expectations,
strategies, intentions, hopes and beliefs, are forward-looking statements.
These forward-looking statements are based on information available to
FreeMarkets today, and FreeMarkets assumes no obligation to update these
statements as circumstances change. There are risks and uncertainties that
could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking
statements, including, without limitation, market acceptance of our online
auction marketplace, the competitive nature of the market for business-to-
business online auction services, FreeMarkets' ability to retain and increase
revenue from existing clients and to execute agreements with new clients, and
FreeMarkets' ability to attract and retain qualified personnel. These and
other risk factors are described in detail in FreeMarkets' prospectus dated
December 9, 1999, which is included as part of its Registration Statement on
Form S-1, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
SOURCE FreeMarkets, Inc.
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Related links:
http://www.freemarkets.com
CONTACT:
Karen Kovatch of FreeMarkets, 412-297-8767,
or kkovatch@freemarkets.com, or Joe Faccenda of Giant Eagle,
412-963-2510, or jfaccenda@gianteagle.com
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