Trading Partners

The WorldWide Retail Exchange, the premier business-to-business exchange for retailers and suppliers, today announced that Markant, the German-based services organization, has joined the Exchange as its newest charter member.

The fourth annual Progressive Grocer ProGro and Cannondale Associates PowerRanking Awards banquet, celebrating the "best of the best" in retailing and manufacturing, is scheduled for Nov. 1 at the Intercontinental Hotel in Chicago.

Fenway Partners, a private investment firm, announced today that The H. J. Heinz Company has purchased Delimex, a rapidly growing producer and distributor of branded, high-quality frozen Mexican foods. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Food Distributors International (FDI) and National Grocers Association (N.G.A.) announced today that they are partnering with AmeriQuest, the transportation and logistics company based here, to launch a new buying service that will save member companies that operate truck fleets millions of dollars in lower prices and new efficiencies. The new service, www.foodfleetxchange.com, opened for business today.

While some retailers have yet to embrace 3-D CAD technology, others are quickly becoming dependent on its ability to review colors, materials, fixtures, lighting programs, and even merchandising plans.

In an unprecedented cooperative effort in health-care, 10 leading pharmacy provider companies have formed a new venture, named ArcLight Systems, LLC, that collects and reports up-to-the-minute information on pharmaceutical prescription trends in America. ArcLight ( www.arclightsystems.com ) is based in Dublin, Ohio and Paradise Valley, Nev.

Independent retailers are being offered the chance to orderdelivered wholesale stock on the internet.